Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on why information about the timetable for the closure of Ealing Hospital Maternity Unit was communicated to three trainee doctors before it was communicated to the unit's midwives.

We are advised by NHS England that Health Education North West London has recently written to a number of junior doctors who are working at Ealing Hospital. This information relates specifically to the timing of their rotations and has no connection to the Shaping a Healthier Future Programme. However, we are pleased to learn that the clinical commissioning group has apologised to the midwives concerned about the misunderstanding.