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Campaigners are delighted the
government will scrutinise a highly unpopular plan to strip
Maidstone of its maternity services.

That was the decision of a Kent
County Council health committee today, who unanimously voted to
refer the plans to health secretary Andy Burnham.

Mr Burnham will now have to look at
the plans of concentrating a full maternity service at the new
hospital and could ask an independent panel to examine the
plans.

Peter Carroll, the prospective Lib
Dem parliamentary candidate for Maidstone and the Weald, said: "We
are delighted - this is a victory for common sense and for women
who would have to suffer long and tortuous journeys to Pembury
Hospital."

The decision by KCC came after
months of campaigning against the plans by health campaign group
MASH (Maidstone Action for Services in Hospital) and Maidstone
council.

The Maidstone division of the BMA
formed of local GPs and hospital doctors also spoke out against the
plan.

Hospital managers told the meeting
several times that shortages in paediatric staff and recruitment
problems over many years, would mean there would not be enough
staff to work at a maternity units in Maidstone and Pembury.

Consultant paediatrician and
paediatric director Dr Wilson Bolsover told the meeting: "It is a
national problem. There are not enough trainees selecting
paediatrics as their specialty. The European Working Time Directive
will limit how long middle grade doctors will be available to staff
both units.

"This is about making sure we have
the right number of staff on the maternity ward - and the staff who
can resusciate babies and have been through the relevant
training.

"As of today, there are 6.5
vacancies for paediatric doctors, three at Maidstone and three at
Pembury."

But Cllr Gary Cooke, a member of
the KCC committee said: "It seems the NHS is making the best of a
bad situation and this plan is not in the best interests of women
and their children in Maidstone. Not only do you have the problems
of journey times, but with the recent bad weather we have had, how
do you expect anyone from Maidstone to get to Pembury. This is an
indication wilful negligence on the part of the trust."