ONE of the most senior health chiefs in Bolton has put his support behind our Back the Baby Unit campaign.

Kevin Snee, chief executive of the Primary Care Trust - which manages community health care in Bolton and hands government funding to the Royal Bolton Hospital - is backing the Bolton Evening News campaign for a super centre for babies and children to be developed in the town.

If the town is chosen, it will mean millions of pounds will be invested in the Royal Bolton Hospitals maternity unit.

The number of skilled medical staff will be dramatically boosted, and maternity services, the special care baby ward and care for children being treated at the hospital will all be expanded.

But if the supercentre is developed elsewhere, Bolton will be left with only a maternity unit for normal births, and care for premature babies will be moved elsewhere in Greater Manchester.

A public consultation has been launched into the future of maternity services throughout Greater Manchester, and the next four months are crucial for the future of baby care at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Health chiefs across the North-west will make the decision on where to site three super-maternity centres later this year, and the Royal Bolton Hospital has been shortlisted as one of the experts preferred options.

But hospital bosses stress this is far from a done deal, and if Bolton is not chosen, the current neonatal unit will close.

Critically ill babies could then have to be transferred as far away as Oldham or central Manchester.

Mr Snee said: "I fully support the Bolton Hospital Trusts ambitions to deliver a full range of maternity and paediatric services, including neo-natal intensive care. Clinically and geographically, the Royal Bolton Hospital is well-positioned to deliver these services.

"I believe the preferred option outlined in the consultation document is based on sound evidence and I personally support it at this stage."

Not only does Mr Snee believe the hospital is the best site for Bolton, but also for Greater Manchester as a whole.

He said: "I must stress that all the options are significantly better and safer for patients than the current position."

Dr Peter Powell, consultant paediatrician and associate medical director for women and childrens services at the hospital, said: "The babies super centre would be not only good for Bolton, but also for the region as a whole."

He called on the people of Bolton to support it.