A PUBLIC meeting will be held on September 13 over controversial plans to shut the special care baby unit at Fairfield Hospital.

The date was decided at an emergency meeting on Thursday organised by the trustees of the Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society, a charity group which has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for the unit in the past 25 years.

September's meeting will map out a campaign of action, which could include a protest march through Bury town centre. It is hoped thousands of people will join the fight to save the unit.

Campaigners plan to distribute thousands of leaflets across the borough, urging people to get involved, sign petitions and write to their local MPs.

A member of the Lifeline society, who declined to be named, told the Bury Times: "Why should an established, well-run unit, with one of the lowest mortality rates in the country, be closed? North Manchester is worse than Fairfield yet that is being saved while the best is scrapped. It seems the harder we work, the less reward we receive. We are victims of our own success."

Under the controversial plans announced last week, the maternity unit will be closed and replaced with a midwifery-led unit.

Mums would go home soon after giving birth, with community-based health care professionals giving support. If a mother experiences difficulties in labour, she would be transferred to North Manchester General Hospital or Rochdale Infirmary. Midwives at Fairfield told the meeting that, despite reports of the unit only being a daycare facility, they would be providing a 24-hour service but no paediatricians or specialist doctors would be available.

Another Lifeline member said: "We are not against change or improvement to health care, but our point is: why Bury?

"We want to know what would happen in an emergency situation. Say, if a mother suddenly goes into labour at 28 weeks and travels to North Manchester where she is then told there are no beds and she has to go to Oldham. What happens then?

She added: "The sad thing is that, unless born at home or in the back of an ambulance, there will never be a Bury baby again."

The protest meeting is to be held at Bury Town Hall. Anyone wanting to join the campaign should contact Lifeline members Sharron Entwistle on 0781-387-0002 or Donna Shephard on 07790-403758.

FEARS that Fairfield Hospital will lose all its maternity services as an offshoot of proposals to close the special care unit have been dismissed by health bosses. A letter from staff at the baby unit e-mailed to the Bury Times said: "The idea of a midwifery-led unit was touted around before recommendations were made public, but did not actually appear in their plans. If proposals are carried through, there will be no deliveries at all in Bury."

However, health chiefs deny there is any plan to withdraw maternity services altogether from the hospital.

They say that the proposals made by the Children and Young People's Network for Greater Manchester would see the department become a 24-hour midwifery-led unit, although there would be no overnight stays.

A spokesman for the Network group said: "The proposals are going out to public consultation and I would urge people, including members of staff, to study them."