A charity that looks after women’s interests is ‘very concerned’ about changes that will mean abortion services are no longer available at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

From next April the service will be taken over by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) charity who will offer patients the choice of a local anaesthetic procedure at its Chester Clinic but women with more complex conditions will have to travel outside the area.

West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group is currently asking for public feed-back to help shape the future of the termination service which will eventually be recommissioned.

Sandra Rudd, president of Chester Women’s Aid, which mainly supports women and children fleeing domestic abuse, is the latest high profile person to speak out about the service change, which has happened without any consultation.

The ex-Labour councillor and former Lady Mayoress of Chester said: “My concerns are that if a woman is considering having an abortion then that’s quite traumatic enough without them having to travel to Liverpool or somewhere else like Wirral.

“I would like the service to remain at the Countess of Chester Hospital where it is easily accessible. If a vulnerable woman has to travel and doesn’t have a car, it’s difficult.”

GP Dr Anthony Bland, who is based at the Fountains Medical Centre in Chester, also raised fears about the ending of the Countess termination service when he spoke at Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Sub Committee.

'I was somewhat appalled'

He said: “I have had the benefit for my patients of this excellent service over the last 22 years and I was somewhat appalled to hear that the service is to be terminated in this way.

“I was taken aback there was no discussion or consultation with general practice in any way shape or form on the ground. Grass-roots GPs really had no knowledge of this until such time as it was a done deal and we did find this difficult to accept. As a result, I brought this to a discussion of the Chester GP Network and asked my colleagues what their feelings were about it and they have given me a mandate to say my feelings are shared by the entirety of Chester city GPs.”

Dr Bland said he had not experienced ‘one iota’ of problems in terms of post-operative complications, adding: “I am absolutely certain that if this service is allowed to wither that complication rate will go up.”

The doctor said if the Countess decision was based ‘entirely on cost’ then the decision should be scrutinised in terms of whether the decision was ‘appropriate and legal’ because there was ‘more than cost involved’.

Countess of Chester Hospital, Chester
Countess of Chester Hospital, Chester

He suspects the Countess is ‘cherry picking’ which services it wishes to run according to whether they make money for the trust.

“I find that unacceptable. If they are going to provide an obstetrics and gynaecology service then it should be a complete service and if they pick one piece out of it that isn’t making them enough money and say ‘well, we’re not doing that any more’, that is not in the best interests of patients.”

But consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician David Semple, who is also divisional medical director for planned care services at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued it was CWaC’s controversial decision in 2014 to take the contract for sexual health services away from the Chester hospital that had undermined the termination service.

'Knock-on effect'

In a statement, he explained: “The local authority decision last year not to continue with a sexual health service at the Countess of Chester had a massive knock on effect on the termination of pregnancy service. It meant a loss of nursing, administrative and medical support, leaving an associate specialist in this field to single-handedly run the entire service.

“A practicing doctor is dependent on a network of clinical peers within the same speciality to support the safe delivery of care – be this through discussion about complex cases, reviewing and implementing national guidance or leading the development of the service for the future. None of the consultants in obstetrics and gynaecology at The Countess have the clinical expertise or knowledge to support this single-handedly run service.

“While we are now unable to support the termination service in its current form, we will of course remain open to further discussions with commissioners and neighbouring health care providers about the provision of pregnancy termination services within West Cheshire going forward.”