FAIRFIELD Hospital’s in-patient maternity and children’s wards will close next week.

Doctors, midwives and nursing staff will start the move to North Manchester General Hospital, in Crumpsall, on Tuesday and the last baby to be born at the Bury hospital will be delivered on Wednesday.

Services will be transferred gradually during the week until the wards officially close at 5pm on Friday, March 2.

A new £35 million centre has been built at North Manchester for in-patient maternity, paediatric and neo-natal services.

Pregnant women will choose whether to give birth at North Manchester, the Royal Bolton Hospital or at home.

The changes are part of the Making It Better programme, which aims to concentrate hospital services across Greater Manchester in fewer, larger units.

Other maternity services, including routine outpatient ante-natal care and scans, will remain at Fairfield. This includes the hospital’s new ante-natal day unit, which will limit the need for most women to travel to hospitals outside the area for appointments.

The paediatric observation and assessment unit, which opened in November, 2010, will continue to open seven days a week. Specialists there can spend up to six hours assessing and treating children — longer than is possible in an adult A&E department — before allowing many youngsters to go home.

Cathy Trinick, divisional director for women and children’s services at the Pennine Acute Trust, which runs Fairfield, said: “We are preparing to move services and have robust plans in place so that our inpatient maternity and children’s services and associated staff and equipment can be transferred safely and in an orderly way.

“An important part of this planning is keeping staff, patients and the public informed. We have written to and are writing again to women affected by the changes.

“In addition, our community and hospital midwives have for many months now been ensuring our patients, particularly expectant women, are kept informed and reassured if and how these service changes will affect them during their pregnancy.

“Tours around the new and expanded units at North Manchester General and the Royal Bolton Hospital are available, so women and their partners can see the new facilities and meet staff.

“We want to make sure that women feel confident and well-informed about the choices available to them.”

Patients and expectant women seeking more information can speak to their community midwife or contact the trust’s maternity care helpline on 0161 656 1757 or mat.feedback@pat.nhs.uk Alternatively, they can visit www.makingitbetter.nhs.uk