Major Farmville hospital will no longer offer labor and delivery services

PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Starting in December, a major Farmville hospital will no longer offer labor and delivery services, leaving its patients to travel over 50 miles if they want to continue their care at an associated hospital.

On Sunday, Dec. 19, Centra Southside Community Hospital -- located at 800 Oak Street in the Farmville area of Prince Edward County -- will discontinue OB/GYN services, including its Labor & Delivery Unit and OB/GYN Surgical Services. CMG Southside Women's Center, located at the same address, will also discontinue outpatient care.

"We recognize how deeply this decision will affect the Farmville community and understand the sadness it brings to families who have welcomed their babies into the world at Centra Southside Community Hospital," Centra Health said.

Fewer than 275 babies are delivered at these facilities annually, Centra Health said, explaining that this decline has made it "increasingly difficult to recruit and retain physicians and ensure the 24/7 on-call coverage needed to provide the high-quality, safe OB/GYN care [that] patients deserve."

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"At the same time, Centra, like other rural healthcare providers, must adapt to significant financial and operational challenges, including recently enacted reductions in federal healthcare funding," Centra Health said.

However, Centra Health stressed that any patient who comes to Centra Southside Community Hospital in active labor or in need of urgent care will not be turned away. They will receive the care they need based on their situation.

"We have protocols in place to ensure patients are quickly and safely transferred to a hospital equipped for delivery if needed," Centra Health said.

Centra Health will continue its partnership with Central Virginia Health Services, located at 833 Buffalo Street in Farmville, to provide outpatient OB/GYN services, including prenatal care.

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Patients who wish to transition to its Lynchburg-area facilities, or any other facilities, can coordinate with Centra Health to do so.

Those Lynchburg-area facilities are:

• Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital, 3300 Rivermont Ave, Lynchburg
• Centra Medical Group Women's Center, 2007 Graves Mill Road, Bedford County

Notably, they are both located more than 50 miles away from Centra Southside Community Hospital.

"Though the discontinuation of these services is unfortunate, Centra continues to invest in Southside Community Hospital with the expansion of the Emergency Department and surgical offerings," Centra Health said. "Emergency care at CSCH has consistently been a top need and concern for Farmville and the surrounding region that we are actively working to address."

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For more information on this discontinuation of OB/GYN services, click here.