Fairfield: We'll fight to the bitter end

That was the message of defiance from Bury's two MPs, council bosses and protesters in the wake of the decision to axe Fairfield Hospital's maternity department.

Fairfield's case to save its maternity facilities and special care baby unit was lost by just three votes at a meeting on Friday to decide which hospitals would lose services as part of a massive shake-up of children and maternity services across Greater Manchester.

MPs David Chaytor and Ivan Lewis and Bury Council's three party leaders are now calling for an urgent meeting with the top boss of NHS North West, formerly the Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority, to voice their anger at the decision.

Leader of Bury Council, Councillor Wayne Campbell, said: "People want to know that their children will be born in Bury. It's what they deserve and what we will continue to fight for."

Within the next three to five years, up to £60 million is to be pumped into eight "centres of excellence" and staff will be centralised at North Manchester General, Royal Bolton, St Mary's in Central Manchester, Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, Royal Oldham, Stepping Hill in Stockport, Wythenshawe, and Tameside General.

Each of the eight hospitals will have high dependency cots and special care cots, while millions will be invested into St Mary's, Royal Oldham and Royal Bolton to become super maternity units, with neonatal intensive care units to treat the smallest and sickest babies.

But the decision means in-patient maternity, children's and neonatal services at Fairfield, Rochdale Infirmary and Trafford General will disappear.

Mothers in Bury will still have antenatal and postnatal care at Fairfield. But they will have to travel to North Manchester or Royal Bolton to give birth under the changes, which, it is hoped, will save 20 babies each year by having more staff working in larger hospitals specialising in their skills.

The Rochdale Old Road hospital will no longer carry out in-patient or general surgery for children and its special care baby unit will be closed.

Campaigners who fought for more than two years to save Fairfield's services have vowed to take the decision to an appeal.

Bury North MP Mr Chaytor said he intended to join forces with Rochdale MP Paul Rowan and fight for the decision to be referred to health secretary Patricia Hewitt.

Speaking after the meeting of the joint committee of primary care trusts, Mr Chaytor said: "I am obviously deeply disappointed that Fairfield was not in the final chosen option. However, we have come a very long way in the last two years in pushing Fairfield to the top of the agenda.

"Two years ago, Fairfield did not feature in the options in any way. In the last six months we got Fairfield into three of the additional options put forward. Today, Fairfield was in there right at the end and was the most detailed discussion of the day and led to a very close vote which encourages me to go on fighting to retain maternity services at Fairfield.

"There is a long way to go - the issue will now go to the overview and scrutiny committees and can be referred to the Secretary of State who can then refer it to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel and I intend to fight this every step of the way until the bitter end."

He later added: "The Bury campaign and the Rochdale campaign must now come together and I will be urging Mr Rowan to recognise the case for Rochdale has been lost, but if we combine forces to keep services at Fairfield to serve both towns that should be where we concentrate our efforts now."

Mr Chaytor is planning to meet with doctors and nursing staff on the special care baby unit this afternoon to discuss the situation. That will be followed by a meeting tonight in the mayor's parlour with party leaders and members of the Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society.

Mr Lewis, Bury South MP, said: "This is good news for the vast majority of parents and grandparents in my constituency, although the fight for the retention of a service at Fairfield must go on.

"The reorganisation will mean new state-of-the-art maternity and specialist children's healthcare services at North Manchester and Central Manchester hospitals. However I firmly believe that geographically it cannot be right that there will be no maternity service at Fairfield Hospital."

Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society member Sharron Entwistle, who helped lead the Babies First campaign to try to save the special care baby unit, said: "We are absolutely devastated, just cannot believe it.

"We are not going to go down without a fight and walk away. We will try our best to get the decision overturned. If there is the slightest chance, then we will do it. We will only shut up when there is no fighting chance left."

Health experts say changes have to be made to address the changing needs of mothers, babies and children.

They say staff are spread too thinly across the 14 hospitals which currently provide services and are not getting the experience needed to maintain their skill level and provide the best possible care.

Once the European Time Working Directive becomes law in 2009, the situation will be worse, as more doctors will be needed to staff the same hours.

Current children's services have also become outdated and were designed for when children stayed in hospitals for longer periods.

One of the first changes to be invested in before the services close will be community nursing teams to treat children at home rather than in the unfamiliar surroundings of a hospital.

Coun Campbell said: "We simply cannot see the need for these proposals because Fairfield's maternity unit is unrivalled in its success with the lowest morbidity and mortality rates, not only in the North West, but throughout the whole of the UK.

"The Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society is said to be successful beyond the wildest dreams' of those who set it up with donations of over £3,000 every month, year in year, which has undoubtedly been a factor in the phenomenal service it is able to deliver. Fairfield also provided the training ground for some of the finest clinicians in the area with its teaching practices being adopted across the North West.

"As far as the maternity unit is concerned, generations of families who have made their home and life in Bury have had a local maternity unit to call upon when needed."

The leaders and Mr Chaytor will be meeting with the chief executive of NHS North West Mike Farrah on January 3.

The decision has also been condemned by Bury's Conservative parliamentary spokesmen David Nuttall: "I deeply regret having to say I told you so' but I warned before the election last year that the postponement of the decision was a cynical ploy to put the matter off until after the general election.

"This announcement sadly proves I was right. The fact of the matter is that we have a Labour Government in charge of the NHS and it is under their control that services at Fairfield are being cut, cut and cut again."

However, Bob Chadwick, acting chief executive for the Pennine Acute Trust which runs Fairfield Hospital, welcomed the Making it Better decision.

He claimed the new location of services would provide the safest treatment.

He said: "Bringing together staff and equipment for hospital in-patient services will give patients the safest possible treatment, with the best possible outcomes.

"We will no longer be stretching our resources thinly, relying on the goodwill of staff who have had to make efforts over and above what should have been expected of them.

"The challenge for all health professionals, whatever their role, is to work together to ensure that the implementation of these decisions is properly handled. Throughout this process, we will work hard to ensure that all staff are as involved as possible. We understand that this brings further uncertainties, but we will work hard to minimise those as far as possible."