No hospital decision for six months

Campaigners say lives are being put at risk

The future of maternity services in Lincolnshire will not be decided for six months, parliament has been told.

Grantham and Stamford MP, Quentin Davies, had urged health ministers to reverse cut-backs to specialist hospital services in Grantham.

He told a Commons debate that the loss of facilities had already resulted in the death of children who may otherwise have lived.

Health minister Hazel Blears said no decision about Grantham would be made until April, 2002 as part of a national review.

'Lives at risk'

Mr Davies secured a special parliamentary debate on Wednesday to discuss the issure.

Protestors have campaigned for three years since specialist services were transferred to other hospitals.

Quentin Davies: Will not give up

They claim the move has put lives at risk because alternative hospitals in Boston and Nottingham are up to an hour's drive away.

Mr Davies said after the debate: "We have had three years of prevarication and equivocation. I spoke very plainly about that."

But he welcomed the review.

"I will never give up. We will never give up, we cannot give up because I fear inevitably there are going to be more terrible human tragedies.

"Six months is a long time but we will wait and next April we will come back to it."