Published at 16:16, Wednesday, 13 February 2013

HOSPITAL trust bosses have agreed to attend a public meeting amid parents’ fears for the future of Furness General Hospital’s maternity unit.

The news that bosses from the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust have agreed to attend the meeting next month comes after health minister Dan Poulter met with campaigners and Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock yesterday, in the wake of the row over scrapped plans to transfer the special care baby unit from FGH because of high staff sickness levels.

The public meeting is due to take place at The Forum, in Duke Street, Barrow, from 6pm on March 7, a spokesman from Mr Woodcock’s office confirmed. The spokesman said the trust had not yet revealed which bosses would be attending.

Mr Woodcock’s office has arranged for 30,000 colour leaflets to be printed, giving details of the meeting.

During yesterday’s meeting in Westminster, Mr Poulter said services like Barrow’s maternity unit will not be taken away by the back door.

Representatives including mothers and GPs also stressed to Mr Poulter the dangers of transporting down the A590 in an ambulance if maternity or accident and emergency provision were moved to Lancaster.

The minister was urged to step in to establish an independent public inquiry.

Mandy Telford, who attended the meeting as a representative of the Thousand Voices campaign to save the unit, said: “The promise of no stealth reconfiguration of services like maternity by the back door is encouraging, but we still have a big job to convince the government not to allow a permanent downgrading of Barrow’s maternity unit and other services.”

Mr Woodcock said: “Anxious Furness residents and staff will not rest until we have guarantees on the services we need, but I am grateful that the minister was prepared to listen to local concerns so quickly after I raised the issue with him in parliament last week.”

Mum Chrissy Pickering, 26, from Barrow, has two children who were both born premature.

She said: “I suppose it’s reassuring they aren’t going to take the maternity unit by force, and that the public’s voice is finally being heard at the highest levels. People are taking our concerns seriously.”

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