HEALTH chiefs have been urged not to shut a hospital's maternity department.

Managers of the Friarage in Northallerton admit one of four options being considered is to close the maternity unit.

Options for the future of the service are being investigated amid concern about the implications of new limits on the working hours of doctors and predicted future problems of recruiting consultants.

Despite 1,300 babies being delivered at the hospital every year, the facility is said to be more at risk than others, because of its comparatively small size.

At a North Yorkshire County Council health scrutiny committee meeting in Hawes yesterday, health chiefs were urged to do all they could to keep the maternity unit open.

Richmondshire District Councillor Yvonne Peacock said: "It would be a very bad thing if we were to lose out maternity services.

"It's already an awfully long way down to the Friarage from upper Wensleydale when you're expecting a baby in the middle of the night.

"I know, because 27 years ago I didn't make it and had the baby in the car. I would not have liked to travel any farther before we got help."

County Councillor Val Arnold agreed: "We just don't want to lose the service. My granddaughter was born at the Friarage and the service was second to none."

Jill Moulton, director of planning for South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust, stressed there was no plan to shut the department, adding: "We don't see that the service is in immediate crisis.

The NHS trust will publish its five-year plan for the hospital, including the future of the maternity unit, in June