A doctor at the hospital has now revealed that emergency staff at the NDDH have been given training in dealing with difficult births if mothers cannot get to Exeter. Royal Devon university healthcare NHS foundation trust has described the suspension as temporary but cannot put a date on when maternity services at the NDDH may return. No woman should ever have to go through that, and that is what the hospital trust are asking us to do.” On the “crash course”, they said: “We have worked closely with colleagues in our urgent & emergency department, maternity services and SWAST [the ambulance trust] to agree clinical pathways for managing emergency presentations.” We are committed to providing the core acute hospital services that people in north Devon rely on.