A PUBLIC meeting is to be held at Bury Town Hall next month to demand Fairfield Hospital's maternity department and special care baby unit is kept open.

The meeting on February 7 is being spearheaded by the Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society (FBLS) who are hoping hundreds of protestors will once again cram into the Elizabethan Suite at the town hall to show their support for the campaign desperately trying to save the unit.

Under the Making it Better proposals, which have been launched for formal public consultation, Fairfield Hospital will lose its maternity department, including the special care baby unit, and in-patient paediatric care.

Mothers will no longer give birth at the Rochdale Old Road hospital and, under the option favoured by health bosses, will instead be sent to either North Manchester General, Royal Oldham, St Mary's, Royal Bolton, Tameside, Wythenshawe, Royal Albert Edward in Wigan or Stepping Hill in Stockport.

A midwife-led unit (MLU) with no 24-hour paediatric care could be developed for mothers expecting healthy births with no foreseen complications - but no decision has been made if Bury will definitely get one. If there was a MLU in Bury and a mother went into difficulty during labour, she would be transferred to another previously agreed hospital with consultant care.

The number of hospitals with neo-natal intensive care units would be increased from two to three, at St Mary's, Royal Bolton and Royal Oldham hospitals.

The proposals aim to streamline specialist skills so doctors get the vital experience needed and stop the unplanned closures of departments. Between April 2004 and March 2005, Fairfield's maternity department was forced to close 18 times.

In October 2004, more than 400 campaigners packed the Elizabethan Suite to voice anger at proposals to close the special care unit. In attendance were protesters from Bury, Rochdale and Rossendale, as well as managers of Fairfield Hospital, councillors, hospital consultants, GPs and Bury North MP David Chaytor.

The meeting was followed by a protest march through the town centre when more than 3,000 people gave their support and, within days, the proposals were withdrawn with health bosses admitting more work needed to be done.

Next month's meeting is expected to last two hours. It will be chaired by Mrs Vera Stringer, who was chairman of the former Bury NHS Trust, and will include speeches from FBLS chairman Dr Said Hany and lifeline society trustee Mrs Sharron Entwistle who had two children on a special care baby unit.

She said: "We just want everybody to show their support once more. The last public meeting was packed out and we are hoping for another turnout like that or even better."