SUPPORTERS of Devizes and Malmesbury maternity units are being told the fight to save them from closure is not over.

The long awaited three month public consultation by the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust is due to begin at the end of January with a final decision being made on May 25.

The public responded magnificently last year when the threat to both units first emerged as the trust announced that it had to cut £10 million over the next three years.

A Gazette petition, plus other petitions, were signed by more than 10,000 people and 500 people marched through Devizes on a freezing February day to present the petitions to the trust's head office at Southgate House off Pans Lane.

The trust wants to close both units as it says they are expensive to run and they are not utilised enough.

But campaigners say axing the units will remove choice for women who want to give birth in a midwife-led maternity unit close to their home.

Birth Action UK, which represents maternity unit campaigners, says no decision should be made until the Government's new national policy on maternity services is published sometime this year.

If the units close the trust says women from Devizes should give birth at either Trowbridge or Chippenham maternity units and women from Malmesbury should transfer to Chippenham.

The trust pays West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust to run the maternity units and at a meeting last Thursday West Wiltshire PCT also agreed to the closure of both units, subject to the public consultation.

It said midwives serving Devizes would be based at Trowbridge Hospital but there would be a need to have midwives present at Devizes Hospital from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday to run clinics and make home visits.

Ante natal care would be provided either at Devizes Hospital or by appointment at Trowbridge Hospital.

Midwives serving Malmesbury would be based at Chippenham Hospital but the trust says a local service would be provided at Malmesbury Health Centre.

Consultant obstetric clinics are set to be lost from Devizes and Malmesbury and be held only at Chippenham.

Ultrasound scans will only take place at Chippenham, meaning Trowbridge will no longer provide that facility.

The trust would remove the birthing pool from Devizes and relocate it to Chippenham.

For the first 13 days in January Devizes Maternity Unit had 70 per cent occupancy well above its average occupancy level of 35 per cent.

Paula Winchcombe, the mayor of Devizes and chairman of DASH2 (Devizes Action to Save Our Hospital), said: "The fight to save the maternity units is not over and we want to encourage women who want to give birth in both units to contact the units.

"The PCT has not considered how much it would cost to have maternity units in the new hospitals they are promising for Devizes and Malmesbury.

"The PCT is concentrating solely on financial deficit as a reason to close the units and they are not taking into account the delivery of the service.

"The PCT has not told us what it takes to make a unit viable. There has been no consideration of how people without transport will travel further to maternity units and the possible impact on emergency services.

"I would urge people to write letters to the trust and attend the public meetings that the trust will hold in the next three months to show them the strength of feeling against the proposed closures."

The Gazette also urges people to to continue to send letters against closing the local maternity units to The Board of Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust.

Letters can be sent care of Wiltshire Gazette and Herald at 14 Market Place, Devizes, SN10 1HT and we will forward them to the trust.

A separate public consultation on cutting consultant outpatient clinics from Devizes and Malmesbury will run at the same time as the maternity consultation.

Both consultations will be discussed by the Kennet and North Wiltshire health scrutiny panel tomorrow at North Wiltshire District Council offices, Chippenham. The public can attend this meeting.