A unit which cares for sick and premature babies in a Belfast hospital is being moved across the city to another site.

The facility is currently located in Belfast City Hospital, near the city centre but is being relocated at the Royal Victoria Hospital in the west of the city.

The move was endorsed at a meeting of the Eastern Health Board.

It follows an announcement by the Royal College of Paediatrics before Christmas, that they are going to withdraw training accreditation for junior doctors from the unit at the City at the end of this month.

The health service was given more than three years notice of the decision.

But the move comes as Northern Ireland's politicians prepare to decide at which Belfast hospital the regional maternity unit should be located.

It is a debate which has raged for the last decade.

BBC NI's Health Correspondent Dot Kirby said that in the short term the Royal looked likely to win "hands down".

"Not only is the eastern board likely to decide to move the Jubilee's neo-natal unit there, but even the people who run the Jubilee think that in the short term, its births should move up to the Royal.

"In the long term the Royal would like to see a new maternity hospital built there.

"But the City would also be keen for a new build and they would see all the associated services, including neo-natalogy, moving back."

The government had opted for a new maternity hospital at the Royal Victoria Hospital, which would have meant the closure of the Jubilee Maternity Unit.

But last June a group of mothers, known as the Jubilee Action Group, successfully prevented its closure.

A High Court judge ruled that the government had not adequately consulted with mothers before taking its decision.

In July the Department of Health ordered a fresh consultation period and this ended late last year