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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Niall Deeney

Rally to oppose maternity closure at Co Derry hospital as campaigners question legality

A rally opposing the decision to halt births at the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine is due to take place this weekend in the Co Derry town.

The rally is due to take place in the Diamond, Coleraine town centre on Saturday.

Campaigners say they are seeking legal advice in a bid to overturn the decision made by the Northern Trust to cease maternity services at the hospital in the absence of an elected minister.

Read more: Northern Trust announces decision on maternity services at Causeway Hospital

Chair of the Causeway Hospital Campaign, Gemma Brolly said: “Our campaign has reached thousands of people, over 2000 people so far have signed our petition to stop this closure.

"We now have in our possession all the responses from the so-called consultation process, none of which are in favour of this closure."

She continued: "Our campaign is also currently seeking legal advice as to the legality of the decision to close Causeway Maternity services without a Minister for Health being in place.

"This is especially important after the statement by Chris Heaton Harris today that states that Civil Servants should not be making such decisions”.

The campaigner added: “This is completely against the will of the people and will endanger the lives of so many, we will not stand by and allow this to happen. This closure does not solve the problems within our maternity service, it simply shifts them to a different location.

“At our protest, you will hear from political representatives, from the Chair of the Causeway Hospital Campaign, from rural community representatives, from mothers and from staff on the ground.

"We have and will continue to work together to achieve true transparency and stop the closure of Causeway Maternity, which we are very aware is only the beginning of a domino of future closures in our local hospital."

Announcing its decision to move maternity services away from the Causeway Hospital in favour of Antrim Area Hospital, a spokesperson for the Trust said in March: "Clinicians have advised the Trust that the current provision of maternity services at Causeway Hospital is unsustainable because of falling birth rates, workforce challenges and the absence of neonatal special care baby unit facilities at the hospital. The workforce challenges reflect the wider problem of attracting specialist clinicians to smaller hospital sites."

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