CAMPAIGNERS are urging people to continue the fight to stop Devizes Maternity Unit from closing as latest figures show the number of births at the units is on course to surpass last year's total.

Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust decided at its board meeting on Tuesday that the unit should close in April 2004, with birthing and post natal inpatient facilities transferred to Trowbridge Maternity Unit leaving a daytime antenatal clinic and breast feeding support service in Devizes.

A final decision will be made by the board in April following three months of public consultation starting in January.

Paula Winchcombe, Mayor of Devizes and chairman of DASH2, Devizes Action to Save Our Hospital, told the Gazette: "Women must not be put off from booking at Devizes Maternity Unit.

"We would urge women who have booked with the unit to continue and any women who wants to book in should contact the unit.

"We have four months to prove to the trust that the unit is viable.

"We don't think the savings that the trust says will be made in merging Devizes with Trowbridge will be great, while jeopardising an excellent service for short-term gain.

"The trust has not come up with any costings for putting a new maternity unit at Green Lane or looked at what the cost would be of transferring women from Trowbridge to Devizes."

Last year there were 138 births at Devizes, and so far this year there have been 136 births. Bookings until June next year are up on the same time this year.

Phil Day, director of community services at the trust, said closing Devizes and Malmesbury maternity units would save £250,000 a year.

He said that on average only four beds out of the ten beds at Devizes and Malmesbury were in use at any one time. He added the cost of building a new maternity unit at the new hospital at Green Lane, Devizes, had not been investigated, but the information would be available when the board makes a decision in April.

Richard Hallett, a UK trustee of the National Childbirth Trust, said: "There is a suspicion that the units have been allowed to run down to make them look uneconomic."

He urged the trust to consider removing a number of beds to make them viable.

Maternity unit staff were outraged at comments made by trust board member Dr Simon Burrell, who said the units relied on GPs to step in if there was an emergency.

Dr Burrell said there would be fewer GPs on duty out of hours next year after contract changes. He said: "In maternity, things can suddenly and unpredictably go wrong. The midwives are absolutely excellent at delivering babies but GPs provide additional health care."

Juliana Beardsmore of Malmesbury National Childbirth Trust, who was at the trust meeting, said afterwards: "Simon Burrell misled the trust. He gave the impression that GPs were running in and out of maternity units saving lives. I have checked with midwives who say they cannot remember the last time they called in a GP to help.