A HOSPITAL'S maternity service is to be reviewed after councillors raised concerns about new mothers being sent home within hours of giving birth.

Health trust bosses agreed at a meeting to take a fresh look at the service at Malton Hospital.

Alison Guy, chief executive of the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, told North Yorkshire County Council's Ryedale area committee that allowing new mothers to go home enabled midwives to give care to them in their own homes.

"We are always keen to work for best practice," she said.

But Councillor Mike Knaggs, committee chairman, questioned the early discharge from hospital of single mothers if there was no one to care for them at home.

Councillor Clare Wood said that, while the maternity service at Malton Hospital was "wonderful", she felt the mothers should have a choice.

Mrs Guy said: "We shall certainly take it back and look at the situation."