Spotlight
Our plans to reopen Special Care Baby Unit and inpatient maternity service at Yeovil District Hospital on 21 April 2026
Subject to meeting essential safety criteria, we are planning to reopen the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) and inpatient maternity service at Yeovil District Hospital (YDH) on 21 April 2026.
Peter Lewis, our chief executive, said: “I am very pleased to provide a date when we will reopen the SCBU and inpatient maternity service at YDH. I hope this provides certainty for our colleagues who work in those services, for service users and the communities that rely on those services.
“We have done a huge amount of work to address concerns about the safety, quality and fragility of the paediatric service at YDH, which led to these temporary closures, and have more work to do. The plan to reopen services is complex as we work through the process to launch the new Somerset-wide paediatric service at YDH and reopen the SCBU and inpatient maternity service at YDH.
“This involves working with our new paediatric consultants, who join us from November 2025 through to March 2026, and our maternity colleagues, many of whom are working in maternity services at Musgrove Park Hospital and Dorset County Hospital, without destabilising those maternity services.
“We have set out the essential criteria that must be in place to reopen services, and improvement criteria which will continue to be delivered and embedded following reopening. Now detailed planning will take place within our trust, with Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and other partner organisations, and with Somerset Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnership, to put those safety criteria in place so that we can safety reopen the SCBU and maternity service at YDH.
“As the date for reopening gets closer, the support and information we provide to pregnant women and those planning a family will become more important. At present, they should continue to access maternity services as usual.
“Our work continues, but I want to acknowledge and thank service users and families for their understanding. I thank our colleagues for the support they are providing to families and the work they’re doing to make the improvements that will enable us to reopen services. I thank our partners, particularly those at Dorset County Hospital, and the independent Somerset Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership who are working with us and ensuring the voices of families are heard.”
Background
Temporary closures
We took this very difficult decision to close the SCBU and inpatient maternity services at YDH from 19 May for an initial period of six months because of concerns about the safety, quality and fragility of the paediatric service at YDH.
Consultant paediatricians from Musgrove Park Hospital (MPH) stepped in to work at both acute hospitals which enabled us to keep running inpatient and outpatient paediatric services. However, we were not able to keep the SCBU open and the consequence of this was that we also had to temporarily close inpatient maternity services at YDH.
Publication of the Care Quality Commission reports into paediatric services
At the end of June, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its reports into the paediatric services at both MPH and YDH, following its inspection in January. The CQC rated the paediatric service at YDH as inadequate overall and the paediatric service at MPH as good overall.
Our priorities are to provide an equitable service for babies, children and young people across Somerset, to recruit to key roles, and to ensure our paediatric services have strong governance processes and a positive learning culture.
Three-month review
The trust committed to providing a formal review of the temporary closures after three and six months. This is a contractual process between our trust and our commissioner NHS Somerset. The trust released a statement following the three-month review confirming its commitment to reopening services
Statement released on 12 September.
Impact of the temporary closures
Since the start of the temporary closures on 19 May up until the week ending Sunday 5 October, 354 babies have been born who would have been born at YDH.
- 135 were born at Musgrove Park Hospital (MPH)
- 174 were born at Dorset County Hospital (DCH)
- 13 at the Royal United Hospital in Bath
- 9 were born in other hospitals
- 23 were born at home.
The trust is continuing to work with Dorset County Hospital and the independent Somerset Maternity and Neonatal Voices partnership to support service users and act on their concerns.
National investigation into maternity and neonatal services
On 15 September, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that Yeovil District Hospital was part of the Government’s national investigation into maternity and neonatal services. The trust welcomed the opportunity to take part in an investigation that will drive further improvements in our own services and improvements in care in England.