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 who are hoping hundreds of protesters will once again cram into the Elizabethan Suite at Bury 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 would no longer give birth at the Rochdale Old Road hospital and, under the preferred option favoured by health bosses, would instead be sent directly to either North Manchester General, Royal Oldham, St Mary's, Royal Bolton, Tameside, Wythenshawe, Royal Albert Edward in Wigan and Stepping Hill in Stockport.

A midwife-led unit (MLU) with no 24-hour paediatric care could be developed only 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 hospital with consultant care previously agreed on.

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

The proposals are aiming 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 into the Elizabethan Suite to voice their anger over the proposals to close the special care baby unit. In attendance were members of the public from Bury, Rochdale and Rossendale as well as managers of Fairfield Hospital, local councillors, hospital consultants, family doctors and Bury North MP David Chaytor.

The meeting was followed up with a huge protest march through the town centre when more than 3,000 people actively showed their support for the campaign and, within days, the proposals were withdrawn with health bosses admitting more work needed to be done.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 around two hours and will follow a similar format. It will be chaired by Mrs Vera Stringer, the acting chairman for the former Bury NHS Trust, and will include speeches from FBLS chairman Dr Said Hany and lifeline society trustee Mrs Sharron Entwistle whose two children received special care baby unit trreatment.

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."