FAIRFIELD Hospital's maternity department, including its special care baby unit, is to shut under new proposals.

Children's in-patient, neo-natal and maternity services at Fairfield face closure in the revised plans for children services across Greater Manchester.

The huge shake-up is aimed at streamlining specialist skills and aimed at preventing unexpected closures caused by staff shortages, which currently happens on a regular basis.

Mothers expecting a healthy labour would deliver their babies in 'birthing centres' to be staffed by midwives with no consultants.

If there were to be sudden, unexpected, complications they would then be transferred to other hospitals in Greater Manchester.

Health bosses met last week to discuss the options to be put forward for formal public consultation, which is due to begin in the New Year.

The agreed favoured option is to centralise maternity services at eight sites in North Manchester, Tameside, Wigan, Bolton, Oldham, Stockport, Wythenshawe and St Mary's hospitals.

Fairfield, Trafford and Rochdale hospitals would face the axe.

Neonatal intensive care units would be based at St Mary's, Royal Oldham and Royal Bolton hospitals.

The news has been met with dismay by campaigners, led by the Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society. It has spent the last 18 months fighting the proposals and demanding to know why Bury has been singled out to lose its services.

Dr Said Hany, chairman of the Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society, said: "Whichever way you look at it, it is bad news."

It is obvious that the views of the people of Bury have been totally and utterly ignored - 40,000 signatures ignored, a public meeting attended by 500 plus ignored, a march through the centre of the town headed by four MPs with 4,000 protestors ignored and now they carry on ignoring the committee and the people of Bury."

Under the Making it Better programme set up by the Children, Young People and Families Network, the 'birthing centres' staffed by midwives and without 24-hour paediatric care, would be introduced for mothers with no foreseen complications or those classed as a non-high risk pregnancy in towns losing the maternity wards.

If a women was to experience unexpected complications during the birth, they would be transferred via a special care ambulance to a specialised unit they had already decided on during the pregnancy.

Women who have experienced problems in the past, or are expecting multiple births, would be sent directly to other maternity units.

Ante-natal and post-natal care would still be provided at Fairfield, where 2,720 babies were born in 2004, and changes to services will only happen once the alternative community services are firmly in place.

Health chiefs say leaving the services as they are is not an option as staff are spread too thinly across the 14 hospitals currently providing in-patient care.

They say this results in many doctors not getting the vital experience needed to provide the best possible care.

Added to that is the staff shortages and the pressures of the European Working Time Directive which means maternity units are unexpectedly closing regularly.

If Fairfield's in-patients service was to close permanently, the hospital could not maintain a special care baby unit without the in-patient paediatrician.

Making it Better is the biggest ever health consultation of its kind and affects more than 3.1 million people across Greater Manchester, High Peak, East Cheshire and Rossendale.

More than 30,000 people, including members of the public, clinicians, carers and patients, have contributed their views and ideas to the proposals and 700 people have sent written responses to the discussion documents which were released in July.

Dr Hany said: "Once again we ask, why Bury?

"Has our birth rate gone down? No, it is going up.

"If the maternity unit closes, what will the ward be used for? What will happen to all the equipment which 87 per cent has been bought and paid for by the people of Bury? Thousands of people in Bury have supposedly been consulted over these proposals - if you were one of them, please tell us who you are."

THE BABIES FIRST CAMPAIGN SO FAR

THE proposals were originally released in summer 2004 causing controversy when it was revealed that Fairfield Hospital would lose its special care baby unit (SCBU) and be replaced with a midwife-led unit.

The news immediately prompted the Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society, created 25 years ago, to raise funds to buy essential equipment for the SCBU, to launch the Babies First campaign and fight for the future of the unit.

The campaign officially began with a public meeting held at Bury Town Hall in September 2004. More than 400 members of the public crammed into the Elizabethan Suite to voice their concerns at the meeting which included Bury North MP David Chaytor who asked: "Why Bury?"

This was followed up by a petition with 40,000 signatures and a protest march through Bury town centre led by the society carrying placards and banners demanding health officials again answer the question: "Why Bury?"

Within a week of the march the proposals were withdrawn when health bosses admitted more work needed to be done. Following the release of Making it Better, the lifeline society have another public meeting planned for January with talks of a second protest march and a trip to Downing Street to hand in the petition.

Campaign supporter Vera Stringer, the acting chairman of the former Bury NHS Trust, said: "The removal of maternity services from Fairfield is the thin end of the wedge and our message is clear - you are not closing Bury."