The Whitby Gazette is launching a campaign to save threatened maternity services – and to make the Scarborough and District Health Trust think twice before considering cuts in the area.

The Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust is expected to be £3m in the red by the end of the financial year and needs to take steps to balance the books.

The trust agreed at its board meeting to look at two options to modernise maternity services.

It has not ruled out the most extreme option of closing all outlying maternity units – including Whitby’s.

The alternative would be reducing hours for services at Whitby, Malton and Bridlington to between 8am and 8pm. A third alternative would be to leave things as they stand.

The Gazette now believes the future of maternity services in Whitby is in the balance – and is backing the people of the area in their fight to preserve it.

As well as covering the story and explaining all the options, it has launched a petition to give people a chance to show their depth of feeling. It is available at the newspaper offices and online.

Latest figures show 303 births took place at Whitby, Malton and Bridlington in the financial year 2000-01, compared with 1,323 in Scarborough.

The cost per birth is £1,547 in Scarborough, £4,247 in Whitby, £3,355 in Malton and £2,340 in Bridlington.

A maternity services modernisation board is now being set up to investigate all the issues and will consult the public as part of its work.

Initial calculations suggest £250,000 to £500,000 a year could be saved if the trust decides to centralise all maternity services in Scarborough.

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