Ref. 12495/2DEVIZES MP Michael Ancram urged people to continue fighting proposals to close down the town's maternity unit.

Mr Ancram spoke of his determination to defeat the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust's proposals at a public meeting organised by DASH2 (Devizes Action to Save Our Hospital) on Saturday at The Bear Hotel, Devizes, which was attended by more than 100 people.

He said: "This is a fight we must continue to fight to ensure we win it. It's very easy to close things but very difficult to reopen them.

"I will do all I can to retain the maternity unit and to ensure we get a new hospital in Devizes but we only win these battles if we have people like yourselves to take up the fight."

Mr Ancram paid tribute to the Gazette and Herald for its campaigning to save the maternity unit.

Guest speaker at the meeting was Richard Hallett, a UK trustee of the National Childbirth Trust. He has already spoken to campaigners in Malmesbury and in Devizes he again inspired the audience with his experience of defeating closure of a maternity unit in Crowborough, East Sussex.

He also shot holes in the PCT's argument for closing Devizes Maternity Unit as well as Malmesbury.

The trust says in its consultation document that closing Devizes and Malmesbury units will save £250,000 to £300,000 a year.

The trust is to publish an addendum explaining in detail what these savings comprise. It claimed both units are under used with an average bed occupancy of 35 per cent each. Last year there were 150 births at the Devizes unit.

But Mr Hallett said: "The bed occupancy argument is a nonsense.

"Bed occupancy is relevant to nursing sick patients, pregnancy is not an illness.

"Maternity care is about the ability of midwives to give one-to-one care in childbirth, ante natal and post natal care."

He said removing two beds from Devizes Maternity Unit would immediately improve bed occupancy.

He said much of the cost relating to Devizes would transfer to Trowbridge where it is proposed that midwives transfer.

Based on the information the PCT has so far released Mr Hallett thought the savings for Devizes could be £70,000, related mainly to the maternity unit building.

But, he said, he thought there would be increased costs to pay out for midwives travelling from Trowbridge to visit pregnant women in their homes in the Devizes area.

He said the PCT should be promoting the unit first to make sure it was widely known about before thinking of closing it.

The audience was astonished when he told them that in Crowborough after the threat of closure was lifted the number of births went up from 105 a year to 350.

Mr Hallett said Wiltshire with its four midwife-led maternity units is held up as a flagship model of care across the country.

He said: "It would be a disaster for Wiltshire to close its units."

Pregnant Eleanor Christmas, the outgoing chairwoman of the Marlborough and District National Childbirth Trust, said: "Devizes Maternity Unit had ten per cent more births last year while it was under the threat of closure.

"The PCT needs to have the confidence in the unit."

Mayor Paula Winchcombe, who is chairman of DASH2, encouraged the audience to make their views known to the PCT.

She said: "The only way that the PCT is going to know how we feel is by writing or e-mailing them."

Comments or letters can be sent to Jenny Edwards, Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, Southgate House, Pans Lane, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 5EQ or fax on (01380) 733729 or e-mail: your.say@kennetandnwilts-pct.nhs.uk

The Gazette is urging pregnant women to continue to book in at the Devizes and Malmesbury maternity units.

Anyone wanting information or to book should call Devizes on (01380) 720303 and Malmesbury on (01666) 822657.

3,000 sign our petition

MORE than 3,000 people have signed the Gazette & Herald's petition to save Devizes and Malmesbury maternity units from closure.

The petition will be taken to the Houses of Parliament on March 29 and handed over to MPs Michael Ancram and James Gray who will present it to Health Secretary John Reid.

We would like to get as many signatures as we can to demonstrate the strong feeling against the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust's proposals.

If you would like petition forms to take to your workplace, playgroup or school call Jill Crooks on (01380) 723501 or email jcrooks@ newswilts.co.uk

If you can spare a few hours to help gather signatures by standing out in public places in Devizes, Malmesbury, Marlborough and Pewsey please call Jill Crooks.

The petition can be signed at the Gazette's offices in Devizes, Chippenham and Marlborough and at various shops.