HEALTH watchdogs have visited Malton at the start of their investigation into plans to close the town's maternity wing.

Officials from the IRP, an independent panel which probes changes made to the health service, were given a tour of the hospital following a controversial decision made by Scarborough North East Yorkshire Trust to axe births in Malton, Bridlington and Whitby.

At a board meeting last year, it was agreed to give mothers in the area the option to give birth at home or travel to Scarborough or York hospitals.

Malton mayor Jane Ford met with the delegation from London on Friday and told them of fears in the community for the hospital's survival.

She said: "I told them that people in Malton do not want their maternity unit to go. They fear if that goes then the hospital will be next.

"They listened to us and we told them about the traffic situation on the A64. During the summer a woman in labour could be sat in lines of queues when she needs to get to hospital. It's just not good enough.

"I had my children at Malton Hospital and I know it would be such a shame if we lost such a good facility in the town."

Despite scrutiny from the IRP, health chiefs are ploughing ahead with plans for a second "home-from-home" maternity unit in Scarborough.

Critics believe this should be put on hold until experts have given their ruling on the decision to close the three community units.

However a spokeswoman for the trust said they will be bound by the ruling of IRP but insisted the "the home-from-home unit is needed regardless of other developments".

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh has added her voice to the campaign to save the local maternity unit and has written to the trust requesting the number of babies delivered in the Malton hospital maternity unit over the past eight years.

She said: "The figures clearly show a huge drop in the number of deliveries there from a high of 124 in 2004 to a low of 25 in 2007.

"That would seem to indicate a deliberate policy on behalf of the trust to run down the unit with a view to its proposed closure."

The plans to move the units have been sent by the trust to the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, for a final decision.

A spokesman for the trust said: "There's an increasing need for care to be developed at maternity units.

"These plans are to make sure we provide the safest service that we can. Child birth has never been safer, but things can go wrong and when they do they are usually tragic.

"At the minute, mothers in Malton and Whitby are 20 miles away from Scarborough hospital if something goes wrong."

Under the plans, both Whitby, Bridlington and Malton hospitals' home birth, post-natal and ante-natal services would continue to run as before.

  • Members of the North Yorkshire County Council's scrutiny of health committee will meet at Pickering Memorial Hall today to discuss the closure of the three maternity units. Members of the public are invited to attend, which starts at 10am.