Watch Peter Carroll
talking about the campaign

by Angela Cole

acole@thekmgroup.co.uk

Hundreds of people have signed
petitions and letters calling for maternity services to stay in
Maidstone.

The campaign, Full Maternity at
Maidstone, was launched on Saturday, September 5, in Week Street,
Maidstone, by Peter Carroll, the Lib Dem prospective parliamentary
candidate for Maidstone and the Weald.

Mr Carroll, joined by fellow Lib
Dem members, asked shoppers to sign a petition and letters to the
health secretary Andy Burnham, calling on him to intervene against
the decision by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust to
concentrate maternity services at the new Pembury Hospital from
around 2011.

A midwifery-led birthing unit for
non-complicated births, would be left in Maidstone.

Mr Carroll's push follows moves to
maintain the service by campaign group MASH (Maidstone Actionfor
Services in Hospital). Mr Carroll's Tory opponent for the
Maidstone seat, Helen Grant, is a member of MASH.

She said: “I am
vehemently opposed to the downgrading of services at Maidstone
Hospital, especially the loss of a Full Maternity Service. A
shift of this nature will lead to fatalities. As a mother of
two myself I know the importance of having a full service hospital
nearby and at the heart of the community. My first child came
completely out of the blue, four weeks early, and there were
complications. My husband and I were so grateful that our
hospital was close enough and fully equipped to deal with that
situation.

Mr Carroll, who runs a
Larkfield haulage firm, is no stranger to campaigns - he and
actress Joanna Lumley lead the successful campaign to allow retired
Gurkhas to stay in the UK.

Mr Carroll said: "It is a wrong
decision and local people are against it.

"I have met an amazing cross
section of people today.

"I want to send at least 10,000
letters to the health secretary to say to him that if there is any
democracy in our health service, here’s a majority of women who
don’t agree with this decision."

A further 20,000 letters are to be
hand delivered to homes urging people to challenge the
decision.