Exclusive:Scotland's Maternity Crisis: Hundreds of women turned away by hospitals amid 'deeply concerning' closures

Hundreds of women were forced to attend different hospitals than they wanted due to services being placed on ‘divert’, with many having to go to units in entirely different health board areas.

Several boards cited staffing pressures and bed and labour ward capacity constraints among the reasons for the diversions, a freedom of information-led investigation shows.

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) described the trend as “deeply concerning,” and said the figures raise “serious questions” about the pressures facing Scotland’s maternity and neonatal services.

The full extent of the diversions - detailed as part of our week-long series, Scotland’s Maternity Crisis - remains unclear, given multiple boards do not record the information centrally. Others could only provide figures for a few months.

There are also glaring inconsistencies in how health boards compile information; some record the number of individual events, while others specify the days maternity or neonatal units were closed to new admissions.

Read more: Scotland’s Maternity Crisis - Nearly 40,000 midwifery shifts left unfilled across Scotland

Scotland’s biggest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said that between 2024 and 2026 to date, 304 women were affected by diversions.

At least 38 went ahead from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, while there were at least 36 from Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, and 16 from Glasgow’s Princess Royal Maternity Hospital.

The board said all patients affected were accommodated within its own hospitals, with diversions greenlit to “manage capacity” and “maintain safe service provision.” It said should an emergency arise, its services are never closed to those babies.

However, it said it did not record the reason for the diversions in a central database, and that it would require a review of all 304 patient histories in order to provide such information.

NHS Lothian recorded 117 divert ‘episodes’ between 2023/24 and 2025/26, with the vast majority - some 101 - coming in the latest financial year. However, it said the number of patients affected was not “systematically recorded.”

It said the most common reasons for divert were midwifery staff pressures, bed and labour ward capacity constraints, high levels of maternity activity, and clinical acuity. Other recorded reasons included neonatal unit capacity pressures and, less frequently, estates, equipment, IT or theatre and medical staffing pressures.

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Patients were redirected between the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and St John’s Hospital in Livingston as well as to hospitals in NHS Borders, NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley, and NHS Lanarkshire.

It said the increase in recorded episodes came after the introduction of a formal maternity divert standard operating procedure and recording process in September 2025, adding that the spike in figures “reflects improved recording and governance” as opposed to an increase in frequency.

NHS Forth Valley had 17 recorded diversion episodes, with the majority caused by neonatal nursing, or medical staffing issues. Other reasons cited included increased acuity and neonatal cots. The longest length of time diversions were in place was 96 hours in June 2026. Another diversion in September 2023 lasted for 60 hours. The number of patients impacted is unclear, but some women affected were moved to hospitals in Wishaw, Livingston, and Kirkcaldy.

NHS Grampian said its maternity and neonatal services were closed to admissions for 114 days between 2023/24 and 2025/26. It did not hold data detailing why, or how many patients were impacted.

Read more: Scotland's Maternity Crisis - A week-long series exposing nationwide problems and giving voice to families

NHS Highland said its neonatal unit at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness was closed to new admissions for 231 days between 2023 and 2025. It said the unit retained an emergency cot at all times for use by a specialised division of the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Elsewhere, NHS Ayrshire and Arran could only provide data between 1 October 2025 and 31 March 2026, during which time its neonatal services were temporarily closed to new admissions on 13 occasions.

Daily safety briefs show that staffing levels and limited capacity were cited as reasons for the diversions on six occasions. On five occasions, no reasons were recorded. It did not have a breakdown of the number of patients affected.

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NHS Fife saw at least nine closures within its neonatal unit due to cot unavailability. It could not say how many women were affected.

NHS Borders said the information requested was “not currently collected in a formalised manner. Similarly, NHS Lanarkshire said the information was not centrally recorded.

Five health boards - Dumfries & Galloway, Tayside, Shetland, Orkney, and Western Isles - said no diversions had been put in place over the period.

A spokesperson for the NCT said: “It is deeply concerning that hundreds of women across Scotland have been affected by maternity and neonatal units having to temporarily redirect patients elsewhere, due to gaps in capacity and adequate staffing levels.

“When women lose access to their local service, their choice is reduced and their confidence can be undermined at a time when feeling informed and having control matters enormously. These figures raise serious questions about the pressures facing maternity and neonatal services across Scotland. Staffing shortages and capacity issues are having a real impact on people's experiences of pregnancy, birth and early parenthood. This can be especially difficult for families in rural areas.

They added: “It is also concerning that there is no clear picture of how often these diversions are happening or how many women and babies are affected.”

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “It is the responsibility of NHS boards to ensure there is sufficient capacity on these wards to deliver care required for their local populations and for babies transferred in from other units under existing arrangements.

“NHS boards and ScotSTAR proactively manage neonatal capacity through national cot monitoring, daily capacity reviews, coordinated transfer arrangements, escalation processes and active repatriation of babies to appropriate local services. This networked approach supports early identification of capacity pressures.

“Ministers are committed to ensuring lasting improvements are made to maternity care in Scotland. An improvement-focused independent review will identify the systemic changes needed to strengthen services and achieve better outcomes for women, babies and families.”