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Fight goes on for a baby unit in town

9:49am Thursday 4th August 2011 in News

CAMPAIGNERS who oppose the shutdown of Fairfield’s maternity services are renewing their fight to save it.

The plug was pulled on the maternity and special care baby unit at Fairfield Hospital in February, after the coalition approved the original Making it Better Scheme, which aims to concentrate services in Greater Manchester.

Then the town was hit by the decision two weeks ago not to go ahead with a midwife-led unit, which means there will be no planned hospital births in Bury. However, campaigners have joined forces with MP David Nuttall to ask Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to reconsider the decision.

They want to meet him to share concerns about recent figures showing a rising birth rate, which they say proves the need for the unit to be kept.

The group also says it can prove the strength of feeling in Bury about the closure remains.

A Making it Better or Making it Worse Facebook page, set up around a year ago, has around 2,000 members.

A new site set up by Victor Hagan, from the Independent party, called Fairfield, Bury, has attracted the same number in just five days.

The shake-up was approved when Greater Manchester had 33,544 live births a year, in 2005. The Office of National Statistics predicted this would reach 33,642 in 2015 but the 2010 figures stand at 37,876. But the Children and Young People’s Network, which is overseeing Making it Better, has said the new system can cope with 41,000 births.

Sharron Entwistle, of Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society, said: “The figures are worrying and we are concerned. It is mums and babies who will be at risk. If things carry on as they have been we could be at capacity next year, not 2015. We think this proves the case for a ninth maternity unit and we think it should be Fairfield.”

The campaigners have met MP Nuttall and a letter is going to Mr Lansley to request a meeting to discuss the matter, asking him to look again at keeping Bury’s services.

Comments(2)

Sharron17 says...
3:23pm Thu 4 Aug 11

Where there is a chance we must keep fighting. This is OUR hospital and we deserve LOCAL services. Why should there be 5 hospitals within Greater Manchester with access to Maternity services and nothing in Bury? North Manchester is about 5 miles away from St Mary's - why are they getting 2 hospitals within a short radius whilst Bury is getting nothing? Andrew Lansley you need to look at the statistics again - and make the decision to keep the services at Fairfield.

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Andrea says...
2:21pm Fri 5 Aug 11

At this rate we will be having to travel over 10 miles to get to the nearest maternity unit, what is the NHS playing at. We all need to fight together to save this unit. All these decisions are being made by people who don't leave in the area, how do they know what is best for us.

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