Maternity units 'turn mothers away'

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Details obtained by the Tories showed that 42% of 103 trusts providing maternity services closed their doors to women in labour.

Almost one in 10 trusts (9%) closed more than 10 times, while one trust reported closing 28 times and another 39 times.

A total of 103 of the 147 NHS trusts that provide maternity services in England responded to a freedom of information request from the Conservatives.

In all, 43 trusts (42%) said they had closed their maternity unit or had been forced to divert women to another site at least once in 2007 because of capacity problems.

The figures suggested that large maternity units closed more often, with 74% of those shutting having more than 3,000 births last year. Of the trusts with more than 10 closures, 78% had over 3,000 births, the Tories said.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "The Government's plans to close maternity units when services are already overstretched fly in the face of common sense.

"Labour are fixated with cutting smaller, local maternity services and concentrating them in big units."

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) said the increasing frequency of maternity unit closures emphasised the need for more resources.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "It is difficult to precisely predict when a mother will go into labour and sometimes, at times of peak demand, maternity units do temporarily divert women to nearby facilities. When this does happen it is often only for a few hours and to ensure mother and baby can receive the best care possible."