A BOLTON woman claims the decision to scrap a midwifery service in Halliwell has caused an outcry among local people. Mrs Farhat Hussain said she was speaking on behalf of many Asian women in the area by calling for the service to stay. Halliwell midwifery scheme was started five years ago with City Challenge funding, but, as reported in the BEN, it is set to fold.

A spokesman for Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust, which pays the salaries of the service's two midwives, said: "It was always known that this particular project would only run for a limited time due to the funding available".

Mrs Hussain, aged 31, said the service was so valuable to the community it should not be axed.

The mum-of-two has used the service, as have friends and relatives throughout Halliwell. It has provided family planning advice, pregnancy testing and other childcare help.

Mrs Hussain said Asian women who spoke little English were able to get translation help and felt comfortable using the service, which had a base in Blackburn Road.

Now, she said, it will be sadly missed. She said: "It has been a wonderful service and I have been asked, by my relatives and friends, to act as a spokesman and say how good it has been for us.

"I feel very sad for myself, and other Asian women, because we all go there and have all found it very useful."

Mrs Hussain, of Worcester Street, Halliwell, has a son, Abdul, who is five, and a two-year-old daughter, Aliya.

She has found the service helpful in bringing up her family and her sisters and aunts have also been regular users.

Mrs Hussain, whose 31-year-old husband Safdar is a machinist, can speak good English, but many of her friends cannot and she says they cannot get the help they need anywhere else.

The service is not just for Asian women. It also helps teenage mums and anyone who needs help or advice.

It has been worked by two midwives who now must take up their normal duties at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The work of the midwives has received praise from all over the country and the NHS Trust spokesman recognised the scheme had helped the Trust learn "many valuable lessons" which have been "applied through Bolton, not just in Halliwell through the introduction of the team midwifery scheme".

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