A MASSIVE campaign is being launched in a bid to save the special care baby unit at Fairfield Hospital from closure.

An emergency meeting was held on Thursday by the trustees of the Baby Lifeline Society, including medical staff and parents of children who have been given lifesaving care at Fairfield.

Support for the campaign has already been pledged by Bury-born England footballer Phil Neville whose daughter, Isabella, weighed 3lbs when born eight weeks prematurely and was cared for in the special unit.

He said: "Without their care and attention, she may not be here."

The controversial plans, if given the go-ahead, would also drastically reduce maternity services at the hospital, turning it into a daycare-only operation.

Staff working on the baby unit are to distribute leaflets and display posters around the borough urging people to back the campaign.

A member of staff, who declined to be named, told the Bury Times: "The maternity unit was opened by Cherie Blair and now her husband is to close it. We are just devastated at the news. There were tears when we were told."

Health chiefs say that a shake-up of women's and children's services was "long overdue" and would improve care.

For Fairfield Hospital, the plans would mean the maternity wing being replaced by a midwife-led unit.

Mums would be sent home within hours of giving birth and those needing overnight care would be sent to nearby hospitals or, in more serious cases, be transferred to one of four specialist hospitals within Greater Manchester.

Money, along with extra funding, would be redirected to establish more community-based services to treat children closer to, or at, home.

Another nurse said: "The risk in transporting sick patients is immeasurable. Bury is being penalised and paying the price for being seen as an affluent area with low levels of deprivation. Instead, investment is going into poorer areas."

A public meeting will be called in September, and trustees of the Baby Lifeline Society are calling for people to support their campaign.

Member Sharron Entwistle said: "We will mark the 25th anniversary of the society by campaigning to save the unit. Its loss will be devastating to the people of Bury. We need their support."

Several families whose babies have been treated in the unit have been left stunned by the proposals.

Mr Robert Bateman, from Unsworth, has just become a father for the first time after daughter Sophie was born seven weeks premature, weighing just 4lbs 4oz. She is still under 24-hour observation in the unit.

He said: "When I first heard the news, I was very shocked and just thanked God that there was a special care baby unit at the hospital when Sophie was born."

Ex-Bury councillor Pam Walker said she was "absolutely gutted". A scanner bought for the unit from a cash legacy left by her late father, Mr Harry Green, arrived at Fairfield on the day news broke of its planned closure.

And Bury mum Alison Chapman, mother of triplets Chloe, Joshua and Sam, born 14 weeks early, said: "If it was not for Fairfield then our babies would not be here today."

Bury's Liberal Democrat group say they will fight the closure which, they claim, could endanger lives if it went ahead.

Councillor Vic D'Albert said: "This makes a mockery of consultation. We believe it is a done deal, forced through on financial grounds."

He added : "It's denying choice and reducing the service. The closure has the potential to endanger people's health, well-being and lives."

Bury North MP David Chaytor said he was "deeply saddened" by news of the proposed closure.

"The proposals have come about following the biggest inquiry into children's health care in Greater Manchester designed to deliver a service to children and parents appropriate to the the 21st century," he said. "I think it is such an emotional and controversial issue. It is crucially important that everyone considers the report in great detail.

"It would be a mistake to make an off-the-cuff, knee-jerk response to a set of recommendations put forward by leading doctors and midwives."

He added: "This is not a simple issue. I, along with my constituents, want to know that, if there are changes to children's health care, what alternative provision will be provided to convince my constituents that it would be a better safer service that is sustainable."

When the maternity unit was opened by Prime Minister's wife Cherie Blair on April 2, 2001, she said: "This state-of-the-art unit will make a big difference to the women of Bury."