Barnet Hospital closed its doors to women in labour 101 times last year because its maternity department was full, it has been revealed.

The hospital, in Wellhouse Lane, Barnet, includes a consultant-led and a midwife-led unit, transferred women each time to Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield between January and December 2007.

It is not known how many pregnant women were affected.

Chase Farm Hospital, in The Ridgeway, transferred women to Barnet Hospital on 13 occasions while the Royal Free Hospital, in Pond Street, Hampstead, closed its doors to three women on three separate occasions.

Clare Davy, 31, of Torrington Park, North Finchley, was one mother to be transferred from Barnet to Chase Farm in February 2007.

She had gone to Barnet Hospital earlier in the day but was sent home. She said when she returned, the staff did not seem to be expecting her, despite her having called them 30 minutes before to let them know she was coming. "I was put in a room and seen by a midwife and registrar and then one of the midwives tried to persuade me to have a water birth," she said.

"And to do that, I would have had to transfer to Chase Farm, but I said I didn't want to have a water birth - it wasn't in my birth plan.

"It became increasingly apparent they were going to transfer me to Chase Farm anyway, because they didn't have enough midwives at Barnet."

Ms Davy was assessed and then transferred by ambulance within the hour.

"We had chosen Barnet Hospital as it was closer and we didn't have a car," she added.

Barnet Hospital is part of the Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Hospitals Trust, which, along with Edgware Birth Centre, a midwifery-led unit in Burnt Oak Broadway, Edgware, delivered more than 6,000 babies between 2006 and 2007. About 3,500 babies were delivered at the Royal Free Hospital. No women were turned away from Edgware Birth Centre, although they can be transferred if a medical need arises.

A spokeswoman for the trust stressed that at no time was the entire maternity service closed to admissions. She added: "We manage our maternity services as one unit.

"All women are advised at their initial booking appointment that, while the trust will endeavour to offer them their preferred hospital or unit for the delivery of their baby, if that site is working at full capacity, they will be asked to attend another site within the trust's maternity services."

The Government wants to give all women a choice by 2009 as to where and how they deliver their babies.

But Alex Nunes, chairman of Barnet Hospital's patient and public involvement forum, said: "Patient choice is very nice politically, but whether it was sufficiently thought out by the NHS when it was known there is a deficiency in beds and money is another matter."