TALKS are being held at Colchester Hospital over recruiting midwives from a collapsed service.

One to One Midwives, a private organisation offering maternity services in Colchester, announced it was folding earlier this week.

It left hundreds of mums-to-be, some more than 35 weeks pregnant, in the dark as to who would take care of them.

The hospital trust will take on 280 pregnant women and midwives working at One to One will be given the opportunity to work at the hospital.

Catherine Morgan, director of nursing at the hospital, said: “We have met with staff and have had individual requests about whether they will come to work for our organisation.

“We certainly have capacity to take those on. We undertake maternity force reviews regularly and the number of births with One to One is small so we are confident to be able to address that without the immediate need to increase the workforce.”

It will be down to individual midwives to decide if they want to take up work at the hospital instead of a home environment.

Nick Hulme, chief executive of the trust which runs Colchester Hospital, said there will come a time when the NHS “can’t pick up the slack” from commissioned services.

He said although the women will receive the best possible care, the NHS will not be able to pick up the slack from commissioned services for much longer.

He said: “280 women were affected, they will be contacted and assured we will continue to provide the highest quality of care through their pregnancy and follow up care.

“It’s worth pointing out this is one of several third sector organisations that has collapsed.

“We had to pick up thousands of dermatology patients when Concordia went bust locally.

“I think there are lessons to be learned around commissioning services and the financial stability of services.

“There is no risk to patients, in dermatology or maternity, but there will come a point when the NHS simply can’t pick up the slack.”

The collapse of One to One Midwives comes just a couple of months after dermatology service provider Concordia collapsed.

With just a few days notice, Concordia Specialist Care Services pulled the plug on its services in May.

It meant thousands of patients were left unsure of their future care and North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and Colchester Hospital had to step in at short notice.