Nusrat Ghani, MP for Sussex Weald, has written a letter to the Chair of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust objecting to discussions about the future of Crowborough Birthing Centre to take place in private at this Thursday’s meeting of the Trust Board.
Part of the meeting, which is taking place on the morning of this Thursday, 30th April 2026, will be available to the public and can be joined via MS Teams. However, Nusrat was informed that the future of Crowborough Birthing Centre would be discussed afterwards, in private.
In her letter, Nusrat raised her strong objections to this, and requested to be present at the meeting when these discussions take place.
Over the weekend, Nusrat alongside the Friends of Crowborough Hospital met with yet another group of mums from areas including Crowborough, Uckfield, Hailsham and Horsmonden who are desperate for the Centre to reopen so they can have their babies there this summer.
Nusrat Ghani said: “Since the announcement of temporary closure of the Birthing Centre last autumn, May was specified as the date for its reopening. May is on Friday and I have not any sensible updates from either NHS Kent and Medway ICB and NHS Surrey and Sussex ICB regarding the Birthing Centre’s reopening.
This is completely unacceptable.
The Birthing Centre is a key community asset run by a dedicated team of experienced midwives, who want to return to the job they love. CBC is the perfect pressure valve for nearby hospitals including Pembury, and its closure puts at risk women not only in Crowborough, but across East Sussex and Kent. I continue to be contacted by expectant mothers, who were hoping to use the site from May, but are not being given the option and are being left in the dark about when the service will reopen.
As far as I am aware, throughout the many years of its operation, the Centre has never received any complaints. We have gathered over 4,000 signatures to my petition and the data collected provides substantial evidence in support of resuming and continuing midwifery-led births in Crowborough. If the Trusts insists on closed-door meetings, it shows that their data is not stacking up.
Nothing should be closed about the Birthing Centre, and have requested from the Chair of the Trust Board and the Secretary of State for Health in the strongest possible terms that either I am permitted to join the meeting alongside representatives of Friends of Crowborough Hospital or more importantly, they are granted permission to attend and observe how decisions about the Crowborough Birthing Centre’s future are being made at the meeting this Thursday.”
Nusrat's letter in full:
