Gloucestershire Hospitals extends home birth suspension while cancer prehab service is also paused

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it has extended the suspension of its home birth service for at least six months [1]. The same trust said its Gloucestershire Cancer Prehabilitation Service will be temporarily suspended from 1 August 2025 because of ongoing staffing challenges and wider service pressures [2]. These form part of a run of temporary service changes announced by the trust, which in November 2023 said SACT (chemotherapy) outpatients at Cheltenham General Hospital would move from Avening Ward to Prescott Ward from 27 November [3], and in October 2022 reported staffing challenges affecting maternity services at Stroud Maternity and Cheltenham Aveta [5]. Earlier, in December 2022, the trust said heavy snowfall meant it could not facilitate home births that day and overnight [4].