Following a review of medical staffing levels and professional advice from clinical leaders, the Royal Devon University Hospital Foundation Trust Board has been advised that beyond Tuesday 11 August 2026 there will be insufficient substantive consultant and medical cover to safely maintain births at North Devon District Hospital.

This means we cannot guarantee that women would consistently have access to the level of senior medical support during labour they may require.

For this reason, the Royal Devon has taken the difficult decision to begin planning for the temporary suspension of births at North Devon District Hospital from Tuesday 11 August 2026.

Between now and then, the Trust will continue to explore every available opportunity to avoid suspending the service, working closely with neighbouring providers, NHS Devon Integrated Care Board and NHS England South West.

Vanessa Purday, Royal Devon Chief Medical Officer, said, “This is an enormous decision and one we feel the weight of in our community.

“We are extremely concerned about our maternity consultant and medical cover at NDDH. The service at NDDH has been reliant on locum and agency cover for some time and recent additional staffing shortages and absence have tipped the balance into it being unsafe to continue beyond 11 August.

“Our RD&E and NDDH maternity teams have worked so hard and held this service together for many months, working extra and longer hours to ensure our families got the care they needed. However, despite our best efforts we cannot staff our medical rota in August.

“A key priority now will be ensuring that those women and families who are due to give birth receive timely, accurate information about their options, and are fully supported to make choices that are right for them. We don’t have all that detail yet but will be issuing it as soon as we can.”

This is a planned temporary suspension. We are doing all we can to reopen the unit as soon as possible. We are receiving advice and support from other Trusts that have successfully reopened services following temporary suspensions. Alongside this, we will continue to focus on recruitment, training and workforce stabilisation to get the service back open.

The Trust will ensure that everyone is informed of its progress in safe maternity services via its dedicated web page available on the Maternity section of the Trust website.

Every person who is 34 weeks pregnant or more will be receiving a phone call soon from one of our midwives, to discuss their own birth plan and ensure they are fully supported. Once we have had these conversations, we will start contacting people who are earlier on in their pregnancy.

We are mindful that many of our families live far away from North Devon District Hospital, and we will discuss with you how we can best support you - this will either be on the phone when we call you or at your next routine midwife appointment.

We have also set up a dedicated support helpline for non-urgent enquiries from pregnant women, birthing people and their partners - 01271 335773. This is open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. Outside of these hours you can leave contact details for a call back.

Any women, birthing person or family member who needs urgent medical advice should call our maternity triage line as usual - at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 01392 406616.

People can also share feedback with Devon Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) by emailing info@devonmaternityvoices.org.uk

Click here to watch a statement from Sam Higginson, Chief Executive Officer.