AddThis SmartLayers

Regional daily delivers largest-ever petition in hospital campaign

A regional daily has delivered the largest petition ever received by the Welsh Assembly as part of its campaign to protect maternity services.

A cross-party group of Assembly Members met Daily Post editor Mark Thomas and maternity campaigner Marsha Davis on the steps of the Senedd in Cardiff to receive the 15,400 signature petition, which urges the government of stop the withdrawal of doctor-led maternity care from one of North Wales’s biggest hospitals.

The campaign was launched last month after the Daily Post exclusively revealed the local Betsi Cadwaladr health board’s plans, which have been earmarked for the Ysbyty Glan Clwyd (Glan Clwyd Hospital), in Bodelwyddan.

The plans will mean pregnant mothers facing a long journey, some of them across the border to an English hospital, for obstetrics care.

Mark Isherwood AM, Daily Post Editor Mark Thomas, AMs Aled Roberts, Janet Finch-Saunders, Ann Jones, Antoinette Sandbach, campaigner Marsha Davis and AM Darren Millar

Mark Isherwood AM, Daily Post Editor Mark Thomas, AMs Aled Roberts, Janet Finch-Saunders, Ann Jones, Antoinette Sandbach, campaigner Marsha Davis and AM Darren Millar

They will directly affect the Llandudno Junction-based title’s digital editor Clare Hickie, who is expecting her first baby this spring.

The Assembly Members promised that they would take the fight forward as a matter of urgency to protect the mothers and babies, following the petition’s delivery on Tuesday.

Mark thanked all who had signed the petition, saying it was the only way the people of North Wales could get their voices heard over this “fundamentally important issue”.

He added: “Momentum is everything here. If we don’t move quickly on this we will lose by default, it is really important that the Assembly takes notice of this and acts swiftly to reverse Betsi’s decision.”