Mum slams closure proposals

Buy photos » Alex was named after the Alexandra Hospital due to the fantastic care the staff gave mum Shirley. Picture by Neville Collins 29012063ncr2. Order this picture at www.buyphotos247.com.

A MOTHER who named her son after the Alexandra Hospital has labelled proposals to close or downgrade it as ‘preposterous and dangerous’.

Shirley Jones was so grateful for the care she and husband Neil received when she had to be induced, they named their son Alex.

His kidneys appeared enlarged and he had stopped moving around before Shirley’s due date in December 2003, meaning doctors chose to send her to the Alexandra Hospital to have the baby early. But even this had to be postponed as there were so many mothers coming from the Worcestershire Royal Hospital to give birth.

At the time, proposals were also on the table to close maternity services at the Woodrow Drive hospital, meaning Shirley went around her Alvechurch neighbourhood to collect signatures while she was pregnant.

Shirley told the Standard: “The induction was delayed due to pregnant mums being received from Worcester because they had too many.

“Where will Worcester mums go if the Alex is closed? Redditch and the surrounding area is huge and I think it is preposterous and dangerous to be sent to Worcester or further if an emergency occurred.”

Thankfully apart from needing tablets for his kidneys for a couple of years, their son was born happy and healthy but Shirley and Neil christened him Alex as a thank you to staff there, who have delivered three of Shirley’s four children.

“It would have been a nightmare for us to have travelled all that way. At least the Alex is quite local - we are lucky that we have got a car but how are people supposed to get to Worcester by public transport?”

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