Women’s hospital services in Liverpool

The NHS is looking at hospital gynaecology and maternity services in Liverpool.

Most of these services happen at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, on Crown Street in Toxteth, which means they are separate from other hospital services, and this can sometimes create issues and delays with care.

The NHS is committed to finding a long-term solution that will improve the quality and safety of hospital gynaecology and maternity services, giving patients the best experience, wherever they are being treated.

Current timeline

What’s happened so far during 2025

March: Women’s Services Committee received a report into the autumn 2024 public engagement and approved the options process. The Board of NHS Cheshire and Merseyside also received the public engagement report, and it was published on the programme website.

What’s underway now and coming up (future dates still provisional and could change)

May to September 2025 - options process: Local doctors, nurses and midwives, those with lived experience of gynaecology and maternity services (members of our Lived Experience Panel), and other partners, have been coming together in workshops to develop potential options for how services could look in the future. Alongside this, work is taking place to understand what each potential option would mean for estates (buildings), finance and workforce (staffing).

July to October 2025: Development of a draft business case for the future of hospital gynaecology and maternity services in Liverpool, including potential options, begins.

October 2025: The Women’s Services Committee to review draft business case.

October to November 2025: Discussions with partners, including local NHS trust boards and local authorities, about the draft business case. At this point we will also start planning for an external review of the draft business case by clinicians from a different part of the country.

November 2025: Draft business case presented to private meeting of Board of NHS Cheshire and Merseyside.

By the end of 2025, we will be in a position to understand the next steps for the programme – it’s likely that we’ll be able to give an update about this in early 2026. It’s important to stress that no final decisions about what services might look like in the future will have been made at this point, and if the decision was to take forward a business case containing potential options, we would then continue with the NHS England assurance process, external clinical review, and planning the public and stakeholder involvement required.

Visit www.GynaeAndMaternityLiverpool.nhs.uk for the latest news on the programme.

Past briefings

Women’s Services Committee Chair Professor Hilary Garrett CBE provides updates after each meeting, which can be found below, alongside updates from the previous Chair, Raj Jain. Here you will also find any updates from James Sumner, Chair of the Women’s Hospital Services in Liverpool Programme Board.