A COUNCIL is pressing a health authority to reopen a maternity unit.

A national shortage of midwives forced the South Tees Hospital NHS Trust to close Guisborough Hospital's Maternity Unit as a temporary measure.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is urging the trust to define "temporary'' - and predict a reopening date.

It says the unit, which closed in November, should be reopened as soon as possible.

Councillor Patrick Harford, the council's lead member for health and social care, said: "I'm not about to attack the trust because they have a very difficult job to do. But the only hiccup in the whole process is the definition of how long is temporary. It needs defining at some time and that time needs to be before it reopens.''

Councillor Vilma Collins, chairwoman of the council's scrutiny committee, said the trust should issue quarterly updates on its midwife recruiting campaign.

She said: "We have asked that question many times - and will ask again. The crux of the problem is plain, there is a national shortage of midwives. The trust has recruited seven midwives and have told us they need 15 before the unit can be reopened."

The report of the council's all-party select committee, which met nine times, including two public meetings, will go before a town hall meeting of the full council on March 27.

Democratic services manager John Harbour said: "This has been our first foray into scrutinising the NHS and it has been a steep learning curve for all of us.''

The council wants the trust to consider expanding the unit's catchment area and develop a strategy for getting GPs in this wider area to refer potential trouble-free births to Guisborough.

It wants the trust to look at services provided by GPs and encourage them by developing links to opt into obstetrics and maternity provision.

The council also wants an analysis of transport problems as it fears the concentration of all hospital services in south Tees, at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, will have a serious impact on the traffic-congested Marton Road, where the hospital is situated.

The council investigation involved talking to the public, the NHS Trust, midwives, GPs and Health Secretary Alan Milburn.