A NEW plea is being made to Health Secretary Alan Johnson to save Malton Hospital’s maternity unit and, according to a senior councillor, avoid mums having to give birth in lay-bys and the back of ambulances.

Ryedale District Council unanimously backed Coun Howard Keal at its meeting when he urged Mr Johnson to give the unit a reprieve.

Along with other maternity facilities at Whitby and Bridlington hospitals, it is due to close when a new maternity unit is built at Scarborough General Hospital.

Coun Keal said he had written to the Secretary of State asking him to over-rule the decision of the panel, which backed the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust’s decision that it should close.

He said: “If Malton’s unit closes, we shall see more babies being born in lay-bys and in the back of ambulances and cars as they are rushed to either York or Scarborough hospitals.”

The closure move flew in the face of Government policy that mothers should be able to have a choice where they gave birth.

Coun Keal said the existing midwifery staff at Malton were having to go to Scarborough hospital because of staff shortages there.

Coun Jane Wilford said: “Malton Hospital is a vital valuable resource to our community.”

The council chairman, Coun John Raper, a member of North Yorkshire County Council’s health scrutiny committee, said he was “aghast” at the closure decision because choice was being denied to mothers-to-be.

Coun Edward Legard said the closure followed those of bus routes, post offices and GP surgeries, causing an adverse effect on rural life.

Meanwhile, health campaigners have been left “devastated” after learning the Government is to cut services at an East Yorkshire hospital despite a long battle to save them.

Members of an Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) have backed plans to transfer Bridlington Hospital’s heart unit and two acute medical wards to Scarborough in a report accepted by Mr Johnson, the Health Secretary.

It said it was not in the best clinical interests of patients to keep the services at Bridlington open, but Mick Pilling, chairman of the Save Bridlington Hospital group, said: “The whole town will be devastated by the decision. It’s a very sad day.

“Some 39,000 people signed a petition to save the services and 7,000 marched in the town over the plans. These protests clearly fell on deaf ears.”

East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight said the move was “dangerous and misguided”, adding: “This penny-pinching betrayal of Bridlington’s residents may cost lives.

“But as long as the bricks and mortar and the hospital fabric remains, the battle is not lost and a campaign to sustain, increase and improve services at Bridlington will continue.”

Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust says the moves are expected to take place within three months, with other services, including rehabilitation, diagnostic and day-care facilities, now being proposed for Bridlington.

And its interim medical director Earl Haworth said: “The future of Bridlington Hospital is very important to us and we want people who go there to get the best possible healthcare.

“We believe this decision will ensure patients continue to receive safe and high-quality healthcare.”