HEALTH bosses are unable to guarantee part of Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital’s maternity unit will reopen.

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust is planning to close level six of the maternity unit, which houses the high-risk pregnancy Silver Star Unit, because of a shortage of midwives at the hospital.

But last night a parents’ charity claimed “lives would be lost” in the shake up, which would see a loss of 12 beds.

Managers at the hospital close a level of the unit each year over the summer holidays because many staff, who are on a ‘zero hour’ contract, take time off during the break.

The trust is currently 29 midwives short, which represents more than 10 per cent of its full time staff.

It is recruiting more midwives, but most new members of staff will not start work until September at the earliest.

All staff and services from level six, including the Silver Star Unit, will be relocated to level five, while the overall number of beds in the whole maternity unit will be reduced from 80 to 68.

The ORH said if more beds were needed then they would be accommodated, but it refused to be drawn on a reopening date for level six.

Spokesman Susan Brown said: “We’d never guarantee anything.

“All services are being looked at across the entire public sector.

“We can’t guarantee the service is going to stay the same forever.”

The decision has angered parents who raised thousands of pounds for the dedicated unit which houses two special family rooms for long-term patients.

The Silver Star Society, a charity set up by parents of babies treated at the unit, labelled last year’s temporary level closure a “disaster”.

A statement from the society said: “According to one report from a senior level it led to ‘chaos….a loss of an organised way of offering care’.

“This is the bottom line of a chaotic, unplanned closure.

“Lives will be lost. And babies have as much right to life as anyone else.

“A dead baby cannot be replaced as the many of us Silver Star parents know only too well.”

Ryan Priddey, from Witney, whose wife Sam gave birth to son Alfie last year, added: “My wife has given birth to our two other children at the unit.

“But last year was bedlam.”

The ORH admitted last year had been busier than anticipated, but disagreed with the claims of the Silver Star Society.

Ms Brown added: “There is no evidence that any babies came to any harm as a result of the temporary move of beds last summer and we refute any suggestion that harm was caused.

“We are confident we provide a safe service and we are concerned that these reports and unfounded allegations will cause families to worry unnecessarily about their care in the John Radcliffe Hospital.

“We are very disappointed that the Silver Star Society has expressed its views in such emotive language.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk