POOLE'S maternity unit was again forced to close its doors to all but high-risk cases last week after being swamped by new arrivals, it has been revealed.

Health bosses say they had to shut down non-emergency admissions for a total of 24 hours to ensure women were not put at risk.

Only one woman was affected by the closure, but it's not the first time the unit has been put at full stretch.

Last autumn, it had to turn away mums-to-be on two occasions after an unprecedented surge in the numbers of births and new mums needing to stay in hospital.

Speaking about the latest case, Penny Jarvis, associate director of operations for women's and children's health at Poole Hospital NHS Trust, said: "We were extremely busy and had to close the unit for 24 hours but in the end it only affected one woman."

She said the move was part of the hospital's strategy to cope at times when the unit is put at full stretch.

Under this policy, pregnant women thought to be at low risk are asked to go instead to maternity units in Salisbury, Bournemouth, or Dorchester .

Ms Jarvis said: "We would never turn anyone away who is high risk or in active labour.

"But part of the strategy is that women who are assessed as low risk and have at least five or six hours to go are asked to go instead to units such as Bournemouth or Dorchester."

She added: "We are a high-risk unit and this strategy is to ensure that we can provide safe care to high-risk women."

The woman who was turned away from Poole went instead to the maternity unit at Bournemouth, she said.

Part of the problem has been an unexpected jump in the number of women having babies, causing headaches in maternity units across the country, said Ms Jarvis.