Blears' backyard dodges maternity unit cuts

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has given the go-ahead for plans to close maternity and A&E units across Manchester and Cheshire.

An independent review concluded that consultant-led maternity care should be concentrated in eight hospitals in the region.

This will mean the closure of units in Rochdale and Trafford.

But opposition MPs reacted furiously after it emerged that in Bury and Salford - the constituencies of Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Health Minister Ivan Lewis - midwife-led maternity units will be downgraded but preserved.

The pair were accused of hypocrisy after campaigning to keep their local maternity units open and run by consultants, despite the Government's merger plans.

Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said it appeared that MPs who had "Gordon Brown on their speed dial" could escape the worst of the closure programme.

"No amount of spin can hide the fact that around the country, maternity and accident and emergency services are at risk," he added.

"Gordon Brown claims that NHS services must be changed - but at the same time his ministers campaign against hospital closures in their own constituencies and he puts pressure on hospitals to claim that services are safe when they aren't."

The decision to close the units, expected to happen within three to five years, follows a two-year public consultation.

The Independent Reconfiguration Panel also backed plans to downgrade Rochdale's A&E unit and axe emergency surgery facilities at Fairfield Hospital in Bury.

The area's Liberal Democrat MP, Paul Rowen, accused Mr Johnson of "wielding the axe".

He claimed the loss of the A&E and maternity unit meant Rochdale Infirmary would become no more than a "cottage hospital".

Mr Rowen added: "It is now clear that there is no change at the heart of Government.

"Today marks a clean break with the NHS created by Beveridge. No longer will services be provided locally, by local people.

"The Labour Government ought to be ashamed of themselves. This decision by Mr Johnson will cost lives.

"All the evidence points to that and I think the Labour Government is disgraceful for implementing this cost-cutting exercise."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "As the local clinicians have made clear, these changes will save lives and improve care.

"The changes will be supported by extra investment, facilities and staff."

Salford MP Miss Blears said she was "very pleased" by the fact that her constituency would continue to have a stand-alone midwife-led unit.

She said: "High quality maternity services will continue in Salford, meaning that Salford women can continue to choose to have their babies born in Salford."