Plans to re-open Huddersfield’s Birth Centre are currently off the table due to capacity issues.
The facility first closed its doors in March 2020 as a “temporary” measure when the pandemic took hold. Now, over five years later the centre is still yet to be brought back into use with this unable to be considered at this moment in time, according to senior NHS staff.
At a meeting in March, health bosses had been unable to commit to the site re-opening within three years. Here, Director of Midwifery at the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT), Gemma Puckett, said a review of the ongoing suspension of maternity care at Huddersfield was due to take place in April, which would take into account the demographic and complexity of the population, and determine how many women are eligible to use a “low-risk” birth centre.
She said the likelihood of the centre re-opening would depend on those numbers and being able to retain enough staff who have the correct mix of skills.
Image: Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS
While the vacancy rate at CHFT has improved dramatically, going from around 30 per cent in August 2023 to 3.5 per cent in October 2025 [excluding those on maternity and sick leave], Huddersfield’s Birth Centre is no closer to being in reach. This came to light at today’s (14 October) meeting of the Calderdale and Kirklees Joint Health Scrutiny Committee where members heard an update on maternity services across CHFT and the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust.
Chair of the meeting, Cllr Elizabeth Smaje (Con, Birstall and Birkenshaw) wanted to know when the Trust would have a decision either way on whether there will be a birth centre in Huddersfield and the current timelines being worked to. Chief Nurse at CHFT, Lindsay Rudge, said the Trust is not in a position to incorporate the stand alone birth centre for the reasons set out in today’s report and at previous meetings.
Councillor Smaje continued: “Previously you’ve said ‘we’re reviewing to this, we’re reviewing to that’, so what you’re saying is that at the moment it’s staff capacity that is not there for you to be able to even look to a review at this moment in time.”
Ms Rudge added: “Yes, not at this point in time. We’ve seen the complexity of women, the health inequalities that we’re experiencing, the priority around continuity of care… We offer the choice of birthing in a birth centre, what we haven’t got is the capacity to do that in two birth centres.”
Women in Kirklees who are considered “low risk” and wish to give birth in a birth centre where care is led by midwives still have options, one of which sits within the borough. Women can choose to give birth at the Bronte Birth Centre over in Dewsbury which re-opened last April. The birth centre at Calderdale Royal Hospital is also an option, as is Pinderfields’.
