Pregnant mum’s bid to reopen “vital” maternity centre

Rachael Martin-Ball is calling for a decision to close Greenlands at Darenth Children's Centre in Dartford to be reversed.

Transcript

00:00The reception is completely unmanned, it's filthy, all the lights are off.

00:04When my partner and I arrived with our son, our 16-month-old son,

00:08we were convinced we were in the wrong place.

00:10But she wasn't. This is where the NHS had sent the invite for her early pregnancy appointment.

00:16She says the building was almost abandoned with only a lone midwife present.

00:22Now that could be because last November Kent County Council made a decision to close more

00:26than 30 children's centres across the county. Greenlands was one of them. It's behind the

00:32primary school here and it's seemingly still open. On the gates there are no signs saying

00:37it's closed and in fact the only sign is saying to press that buzzer there to be able to go in

00:42for your appointment.

00:44I then start to question why are you working out of here? I was under the impression this

00:48had been closed down. She said it has, for all intents and purposes, it has. All of the

00:51rooms essentially are empty. I'm working out of one room on my own using a walkie-talkie

00:56to communicate with my colleagues and patients because there's nowhere else for me to go.

01:01The health charity worker is 11 weeks pregnant with her second child. She visited Greenlands

01:07during her first pregnancy with no concerns. She's now worried for others' safety.

01:11It's not ideal to go into that type of environment and have a needle put in your arm. For the

01:19safety of midwives that are working there, for the safety of patients that are attending,

01:24it's a real health hazard at the moment that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

01:31As a Dartford Borough Councillor, she's launched a campaign following her experience and the

01:36local MP says his constituency is one of the fastest growing amongst young people in the UK.

01:41I know the current government is very committed to having fully functioning family and children's

01:47hubs and that might be an opportunity for Kent County Council. So rather than running these

01:52services down and now actually running services pretty inappropriately from semi-abandoned

01:59facilities, they need to be looking at a positive plan to reinstate services,

02:03meet the growing demand and make sure that we get the best possible health outcomes for everyone

02:08concerned. In a statement, the authority confirmed to us the centre's closure, stating they're in

02:14talks with partners about its future use and saying service users will be informed if an

02:18agreement is reached. For Rachel and other expected mothers, it remains unclear why this

02:24centre is still being used and they worry it'll only become more neglected with time.

02:30Gabriel Morris in Dartford.