Your questions answered

Over the past year, we have been working hard to meet the essential safety criteria needed to reopen inpatient maternity services and the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) at Yeovil District Hospital (YDH).

We have made significant improvements to ensure the unit is well‑staffed and properly supported. These improvements are key steps towards reopening services at Yeovil.

Safety, transparency and the experience of women, babies and families remain at the centre of everything we do and our colleagues in the Somerset Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) have been working alongside us throughout.

We are working closely with the Somerset Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) to ensure women’s and families’ experiences shape services as they reopen.

Feedback from families and colleagues is used alongside safety data to guide improvements and strengthen quality and care. We encourage people who have used our maternity services to share their experience with us, so that we can listen and make improvements.

If you are currently pregnant or have any questions or concerns, please reach out to your community midwife. Our trust’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service and the independent Somerset Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership are also there to support you.

Maternity services at Musgrove Park Hospital and Dorset County Hospital will continue to run as normal following the reopening of services at Yeovil.

Many colleagues who temporarily supported services elsewhere have returned to roles at YDH, while some staff will continue to work across sites. We have also recruited additional midwives and nurses to support services across Somerset.

Improvements in the maternity ward and antenatal clinics at Musgrove Park will remain in place along with increased staffing support.

Women and families can continue to access maternity care at their chosen hospital in the usual way.

We have now reopened the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) and inpatient maternity services at Yeovil District Hospital (YDH) at midday on Tuesday 21 April 2026. If you are due to have your baby on or after the 21st of April 2026, you may be thinking about your options for place of birth and need information to make choices. We are working with our midwives and doctors who will have conversations with you to ensure your care and place of birth is fully discussed.

If you live in the Yeovil catchment area, and your baby is due on or after 21 April, you can choose to give birth at Yeovil District Hospital (YDH). If that is your choice, please book your antenatal (pregnancy) care in with YDH community midwifery team through Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.

If you are under the care of an obstetrician (doctor) with DCH, and you are thinking of changing your place of birth, you should have a personalised conversation with your doctor about continuity of care and place of birth. We would encourage you to remain with DCH if you are in this group to ensure as much continuity of care as possible. This will help to ensure you are fully aware of how your pathway of care, potential risks, and choices may change depending on where you wish to give birth.

Our home birth service is fully open across Somerset.

If you are on a high risk pregnancy care pathway, you should continue to have conversations with your midwife and doctor (obstetrician) about the best plan for your individual pregnancy. In some cases, this might mean accessing care at different hospitals, this will be discussed with you, and your questions will be answered.

Your safety and experience of care is always our priority. We took the very difficult decision to temporarily close inpatient maternity services and the SCBU at YDH from 19 May 2025 due to concerns about the safety, quality and fragility of the paediatric service at YDH.

Since then, there has been a huge amount of work to make improvements and address these concerns by:

• Creating a Somerset-wide paediatric service to provide equitable services across the county with services provided at both YDH and Musgrove Park Hospital
• Recruiting five new paediatric consultants and ensuring senior experienced paediatricians are present at times of peak demand, including out of hours in the evenings and at weekends
• Recruiting a neonatal matron and neonatal nurses, a medical neonatal lead, midwives and leaders within the maternity service
• Creating a cross site clinical and managerial leadership structure to support the paediatric service to embed improvements and continuously improve in the future
• Providing simulation and rotational training to support colleagues to maintain their skills
• Strengthening governance processes; and
• Developing a framework for ongoing safety monitoring.

Please speak to your midwife about visit arrangements.

Yes. Partners are welcomed and supported to stay during labour and birth, and on the postnatal ward afterwards.

Keeping families together is an important part of the care provided at Yeovil. Facilities are available to help partners stay comfortably during their time on the ward.

Yes, this room will be a multi-use room, but priority will always be given to bereaved families.

Yes. Staffing is planned so that the right professionals are in place at the right time, including obstetric, neonatal and midwifery colleagues.

Our maternity triage is now fully available at Yeovil, using the Somerset triage phone number.

When you contact triage, a midwife will carry out a telephone assessment to understand your symptoms and clinical needs. If you need to be seen in person, you will be asked to attend triage at Yeovil.

The triage process uses a nationally recognised system to make sure people are seen safely and as soon as possible, based on clinical urgency. While target times are used to guide care, teams always aim to see people as soon as possible.

Yes. While Yeovil is an obstetric led (specialist doctors) unit, this does not mean everyone needs obstetric led care and we do provide midwife-led care where appropriate.

During your pregnancy, you will have the opportunity to talk with your community midwife about your options, preferences and individual circumstances. This will help you understand what type of care is right for you and what to expect when you give birth.

Yes. The home birth service at Yeovil will continue to run, as it has done throughout the temporary closure.

The home birth team provides a 24‑hour, seven‑day‑a‑week on‑call service. Even at times of increased activity or staff sickness, teams work flexibly to ensure someone is available to attend, including drawing on wider midwifery support if needed.

Home birth remains an important and supported option for women and birthing people who choose it.

Teams place strong emphasis on multidisciplinary working, communication and regular joint training. This means staff are well prepared to respond effectively and safely if emergency situations arise.

The infant feeding team will continue to support feeding in the community alongside the midwifery team, but this won’t be in a drop-in format at this time. We will keep this under review to ensure we meet the needs of families in our care.

In most cases, this can be done easily by speaking to your community midwife, who can arrange for your care to transfer back to Yeovil.

If you have specific risk factors or have already had significant input from an obstetric team at another hospital, it may be recommended that you continue your care there. This will always be discussed with you, taking your individual circumstances into account, and may involve your consultant as well as your midwife.

We have recruited into vacancies to increase staffing at Musgrove and Yeovil to ensure we can provide our services safely and will continue to support safe care across the sites, including some cross-site working.

Musgrove’s current antenatal clinic and triage area will remain unchanged.

Yes. You will continue to have choice about where you give birth, including Musgrove Park Hospital, even after inpatient maternity services reopen at Yeovil.

Your community midwife will continue to provide your antenatal and postnatal care locally and can support you with booking care at Musgrove or another hospital if that is your preference.

If you have questions about your care or where you will give birth:

• Speak to your midwife or maternity team
• Staff in antenatal clinics
• Members of the team involved in your care
• Visit our trust website for the latest updates

If someone is not the right person to answer your question directly, they will help put you in touch with the appropriate colleague.

Somerset maternity advice line and emergency triage

Call: 01823 343985

The support line is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week and is your dedicated maternity emergency line. If you become unwell or have any concerns about your heath, including your baby’s movements, please call for advice.

When you call the triage number you can discuss your needs with the midwife who will be able to advise you the best place for the care you require. We will always listen to your preferences.

A wide range of improvements have been made, including:

• Recruiting new senior clinical maternity, neonatal and paediatric leaders
• Recruiting additional clinical colleagues, including paediatric consultants and neonatal nurses
• Creating a Somerset‑wide paediatric service to ensure consistent care across the county
• Strengthening processes for daily safety checks, reviews and escalation
• Enhancing staff training, guidance and care pathways
• Strengthening governance and ongoing safety monitoring
• Working closely with women, birthing people and families as well as staff to act on feedback

These improvements are focused on making care safer, more consistent and more supportive for families.

Staffing has been significantly strengthened through:

• Recruiting five new paediatric consultants at Yeovil
• Increasing senior consultant presence at times of peak demand, including evenings and weekends
• Recruiting neonatal nurses, midwives and senior maternity leaders
• Supporting ongoing recruitment to build a sustainable workforce

This ensures the right expertise is available when it is needed most.

We have introduced stronger safety arrangements, including:

• Clear daily, weekly and longer term safety reviews
• Made improvements to support timely escalation and response when concerns are identified
• Focused pathways to listen and respond to staff and service user feedback
• Stronger clinical and executive level oversight

This means potential issues are identified earlier and acted on more quickly.

Care on the SCBU has been strengthened through:

• Increased consultant involvement in the care of babies and families
• Defined senior attendance, documentation and ward round processes
• Improved training for staff caring for babies born sick or premature
• Stronger links with specialist neonatal teams at Musgrove Park Hospital

This helps ensure babies receive consistent, high quality care as close to home as possible.

We know safe care depends on a supported workforce. Alongside recruitment, we are focusing on:

• Clear leadership and supportive team structures
• Improved rota planning and staffing cover
• A culture of openness, learning and kindness

This helps colleagues provide the best possible care for families.

It is very difficult to hear the experiences of those who have had a traumatic experience, and we are sorry they have been let down by our services. Understanding where we get things wrong, and the impact this has on those using our services is an essential part of improving our services.

We work with the independent Somerset Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership to do this, and we welcome being part of the National Investigation into Maternity and Neonatal Services.

We must ensure that the services we provide are safe and we have taken, and will continue to take, decisive action when failings are identified. We acted quickly in response to the CQC’s inspection of our maternity services and we temporarily closed services at Yeovil District Hospital (YDH) because we were concerned about the safety, quality, and fragility of the hospital’s paediatric service.

Our commitment is to listen and take action from people’s experiences and from the findings of the national investigation, and the Care Quality Commission’s reports into maternity services and paediatric services at Yeovil District Hospital, to develop high quality equitable services for women, birthing people, babies, children and families across Somerset.

We will act on the findings of the National Investigation into Maternity and Neonatal services and thank everyone who has shared their experience with the investigation.

Please continue to share your experience with us, with Somerset Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership and/or the National Investigation into Maternity and Neonatal Services and we will act on what we hear.

Inpatient maternity services and the SCBU at Yeovil were temporarily closed in May 2025 due to concerns about the safety, quality and fragility of the paediatric and neonatal service at YDH.

This decision gave us the time needed to strengthen leadership, recruit additional staff, improve training and put stronger safety and oversight arrangements in place before reopening.

While inpatient services were temporarily closed at Yeovil, births took place at other hospitals within Somerset and neighbouring areas, including Musgrove Park Hospital, Dorset County Hospital and the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

Home birth services continued during this time, supported by our midwifery teams. We worked closely with neighbouring hospitals and healthcare partners to ensure capacity and continuity of care throughout this period.

The majority of births took place at Musgrove and Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester. Since the start of the temporary closures on 19 May 2025 up until the end of March 2026, there were 859 babies born who would have been born at YDH:

• 350 were born at Musgrove Park Hospital (MPH)
• 399 were born at Dorset County Hospital (DCH)
• 38 at the Royal United Hospital in Bath
• 19 were born in other hospitals
• 53 were born at home.

Home birth and community midwifery services, antenatal clinics, antenatal scanning and support services continued as usual. Community teams, across Somerset have supported homebirths across the county and this support will continue.

We also launched an Infant Feeding Drop In clinic in YDH that has been extremely successful supporting many families with expert infant feeding advice and support across the whole of Somerset. After reopening, the infant feeding team will continue to provide support in the community alongside our community midwives.

Maternity and neonatal colleagues affected by the temporary closure were supported by the trust’s wellbeing and HR teams.

Many colleagues took on temporary roles in other services, including Musgrove Park Hospital, community maternity services within Somerset, and partner hospitals such as Dorset County Hospital and the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

As we prepare to reopen services at Yeovil, colleagues are taking part in welcome‑back sessions, refresher training and induction activity. We are continuing to work closely with partner hospitals to support staff returning to their roles at YDH.