Sutton's Carmen Birthing Centre at St George's Hospital is under review due to a significant drop in birth rates, according to a report presented to the Sutton Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, 10 December 2025. The review aims to explore ways to continue offering choices to local people, considering that several other birthing centres are located nearby.
Birth rates at the centre have fallen by over 50% in the last five years, and fewer women are choosing the centre for births when booking, leading to underutilisation of the facility, according to Alex Shaw, Interim Managing Director ESTH. While the specific factors contributing to this decline are not detailed in the provided text, the ESTH Sutton Scrutiny Committee Update report clarifies that no decisions have been made
regarding the future of the birthing centre.
The Carmen Birthing Centre operates separately from the St George's Delivery Suite, where midwives work alongside obstetric and anaesthetic colleagues, and where 97% of women give birth. The report indicates that there is space and capacity in the delivery suite to provide a dedicated room for midwifery-led care, suggesting that the St George's Delivery Suite could absorb some of the services currently provided by the Carmen Birthing Centre if needed.
The review is considering the views of staff, patients, and communities to ensure any changes are appropriate for everyone involved. The ESTH Sutton Scrutiny Committee Update report also covered performance, finances, winter preparations, a historical pay and pensions issue, and the maintenance of the estate.
Specifically, the report provides some headlines around performance for emergency care and waiting times, focusing on diagnostics and Cancer at Epsom and St Helier against national service standards. The Trust has submitted a deficit financial plan of £5.7m for 2025/26. This is predicated on a significant Cost Improvement Programme of £67.7m and deficit support funding of £41.6m. The report notes that achieving this plan will be very challenging. Winter preparation plans include working with other local hospitals, local authorities and wider stakeholders including VCSE organisations, to ensure joined up care and delivering communications campaigns to ensure local people know where they can seek the right help for them should they need it.
Regarding the historical pay and pensions issue, the report states that when colleagues were brought in-house, they received improved pay and conditions, including the London Living Wage, increased annual leave and access to the national workplace pension scheme (NEST). The report also states that they are in the process of giving staff the choice to join the NHS pension scheme and that they were wrong not to do this when they were brought in-house, and they are sorry for this error. They also want to offer our facilities staff equal terms and conditions, and a full review is underway.
