SAVE The Grange campaigners took their battle to Westminster for the third time in under a year on Tuesday, to meet new health minister Ivan Lewis. With East Hampshire MP Michael Mates, Mel Watson, leader of the campaign to open the Blackbrook birth centre and Fareham MP Mark Hoban, they discussed the closure of the popular Swan Street birth centre with the minister. After the meeting, Grange campaign leader Sarah Roberts said Mr Lewis had pledged to "keep an eye" on the closures in Petersfield and Fareham. She said he had also promised to contact local PCT and NHS trusts to get a firmer timeline, in the interests of providing a "transparent" guide to the future of the birth centres. He also agreed to follow up two issues raised by the campaign group: first, to get a response from the Department of Health to the petition delivered to Downing Street in December, and then to get a reply from another health minister, Gwyneth Lewis, who was asked to look into the closures by Ivan's predecessor, Liam Byrne, in March. Mrs Roberts said: "We made Mr Lewis aware of our frustration at the indefinite closure, the local staffing situation and our worries about the reconfiguration of maternity services in the area. "Mr Lewis asked us what we felt local services should offer and we replied that a main unit at the Queen Alexandra Hospital and low-tech birth centres in local communities would enable low-risk women access to local services, which would give them a better chance of a normal, straightforward birth. "We made him aware that it also makes more geographical sense to spread maternity services across the region than having the majority of the services centralised at QA." The Grange was closed last year due to a lack of midwives through sick leave, maternity leave and job vacancies. It led to a huge outcry in the town and last December, parents wheeled their prams to the front door of 10 Downing Street to hand over a petition containing 10,000 names. In early February, campaigners once again thrust their cause into the national spotlight when they met former health minister Liam Byrne in an all-party parliamentary group on maternity. Campaigners have yet to pin Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust down to a reopening date. Last week, the head of midwifery, Donna Ockenden, said she hoped the doors could open as soon as October. After this week's meeting, Michael Mates said the health minister had acknowledged that the actions of Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust in closing The Grange were contrary to government policy. He said: "The health minister listened to what we had to say and said that the informal review being carried out would have to consider all our concerns. "We pointed out that the problem was caused by bed allocations worked out in the 1990s, ascribing 75 maternity beds to the main hospital, and leaving only 10 for the outlying stations. "That was government policy in the 1990s, which has now been changed. What they were doing in Portsmouth was contrary to the national policy for midwifery. He acknowledged this and said the issue had to be resolved. "It was a good first step but there is much more to be done."
