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

Revised plans for children services across Greater Manchester have been announced, revealing that children's in-patient, neo-natal and maternity services at Fairfield face closure.

The huge shake-up is aimed at streamlining specialist skills and stop unexpected closures caused by staff shortages.

Mothers expecting a healthy labour would deliver in 'birthing centres' staffed by midwives with no consultants and, if there were any unexpected complications, be transferred to other hospitals across Greater Manchester.

Health bosses met last week to thrash out the options to be put forward for formal public consultation, 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 with Fairfield, Trafford and Rochdale hospitals facing 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, who have 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 protesters 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, 'birthing centres' staffed by midwives and without 24-hour paediatric care, would be introduced for mothers with no foreseen complications or classed as a non-high risk pregnancy in the 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 have 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 and any 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.

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 meaning maternity units are unexpectedly closing on a regular basis. During last year there were 2,720 babies born at Fairfield.

* The Babies First campaign is renewing its battle plans in a bid to save Fairfield's maternity services.

A public meeting has been pencilled in for January with talks of another protest march and a trip to Downing Street.

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."