NHS St Helens CCG is working with colleagues from Maternity Services at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to modernise and transform maternity services in St Helens to enable the service to offer better continuity of care.

To do this we need to merge antenatal clinic provision across fewer sites to ensure that women can see the same group of midwives and provide a high quality offer to all women. We are proposing that instead of delivering clinics across 31 sites in St Helens, we will streamline this across 5 sites. This would mean that if a woman chooses to book with St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust that they would attend their appointments at the same place instead of attending their booking and antenatal appointments at different places. For some women this may mean travelling further to access clinics but it will mean that there is more flexibility in terms of the day/time of the appointment. In addition the service will be able to offer more home visits which they are currently unable to do.

We would like to hear from women who are currently pregnant, have recently had a baby (within the past 12 months) or who plan become pregnant within the next 12 months; we are also happy for people to complete the survey on behalf of any women who fulfils these criteria. By completing the Centralisation of Community Midwifery Services in St Helens survey women will help us to shape the offer from Maternity Services. The survey will close on the 15 August.

If you have a group of women who would prefer to have a conversation either over the telephone, via a video call or in person then do not hesitate to get in touch and this can be arranged. Please contact Ann-Marie Barrow, Senior Commissioning and Transformation Manager by email: ann-marie.barrow@sthelensccg.nhs.uk or telephone 07788 301 177.