A FINAL decision on the future of Malton maternity unit will be taken within the next month.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson is now due to have the critical say on whether births will be axed in Malton, Whitby and Bridlington community hospitals.

The Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) – a panel which probes changes in the health service – has completed its investigation of the midwife-led units at the three hospitals.

The panel’s findings will now go before Mr Johnson for a final decision, which is expected to arrive next month.

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh, who is also parliamentary candidate for the new constituency of Thirsk and Malton, says she still fears Malton mothers could suffer under plans devised by Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust.

This is despite guarantees which she says she has received from Parliamentary Under Secretary for State Ann Keen, who claims the Malton unit will survive, but possibly not in its current guise.

In a letter to Miss McIntosh, Miss Keen said: “The unit at Malton would not close, but would carry on providing the wide range of ante-natal and post-natal care they do at present.

“The number of births at community hospitals like Malton has declined over the years, and as national guidelines are established, [Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust] has had to introduce increasingly strict criteria as to who can deliver at a unit without medical back-up.”

However, Miss McIntosh feels questions still need to be answered.

She said: “I welcome the comments that the Malton unit will not close, continuing to provide ante-natal and post-natal care.

“However, it is clear there has been pressure to reduce the number of deliveries in the unit since 2004. The removal of births from Malton maternity unit would diminish access to maternity services in the town and North Yorkshire and subject expectant mothers to longer car journeys, with bad winter weather and heavy traffic in summer.

“Mothers living in rural areas have as much right to choose where to give birth as those living in urban areas.”

Meanwhile the Government’s controversial plans to set up polyclinics in the county, come under the spotlight on Friday, including a proposal to create one in Scarborough.

The authority’s health scrutiny committee is to investigate the idea at a meeting at West Burton Village Hall in Upper Wensleydale. Polyclinics are healthcare centres which the NHS is proposing to establish to improve access and choice to primary care services including GP practices, dentists, pharmacists, and health visitors. Jane Marshall, director of commissioning at the North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT), and Dr Dougy Moederle-Lumb, joint chief executive of the YOR Local Medical Committee which represents GPs in North Yorkshire, will provide the meeting with information and their perspectives on polyclinics. Coun John Blackie, chairman of the committee, said: “Yet again we will be debating some of the most contentious issues in the ever-changing NHS.

He added: “Rural areas depend absolutely on access to core healthcare services like A&E and maternity at their local hospitals due to the distance and time involved in getting to the next nearest hospital.”