COLCHESTER General Hospital will retain its midwives when NHS bosses recommend maternity units in Clacton and Harwich do not open 24/7.

The North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and Colchester’s hospital trust are set to propose birthing units at Clacton and Harwich remain “on demand”.

The units had to close for four months last year because of staffing shortages at Colchester General Hospital, which delivers more than 3,000 babies a year compared to fewer than 300 combined in Clacton and Harwich.

A report due to be discussed by Colchester’s hospital trust tomorrow states: “To staff the midwife led units on a 24-hour basis reduces the availability of service provision in children’s centres, GP clinics and in the home, which has been expanded since July last year.”

Campaigners in Clacton and Harwich had called for units in their towns to be open around the clock.

Jo Taylor, 32, of Point Clear, gave birth in the front of her Mini Cooper at Clacton Hospital’s car park at 8.46am on December 16 after baby Poppy arrived earlier than expected.

She said: “The midwives were fantastic.

“They reached us within seconds and spared Andrew from having to deliver the baby himself.

“If the baby had come an hour earlier, an on-demand unit would not have been ready to help.

“The thought of having to give birth in the car park and then the unit being closed is absolutely horrific.”

Harwich maternity campaigner Jenny Semple called for round-theclockmaternity services to be reintroduced at Dovercourt’s Fryatt Hospital.

She said: “Something is better than nothing, but this really is not good enough. It is not what we need and not what we want.

“People here are thinking: ‘Am I going to make it to the maternity unit in time or what if I have to go to Colchester?’ It is farcical.”

NHS bosses initially considered closing the two coastal units completely to free up more midwives to be in Colchester.

They launched a consultation in October last year.

More than 233 people responded to the survey, of which 59 per cent called for the return of 24/7 services.

The recommendations to remain as on-demand units is expected to be supported by the board of Colchester Hospital at its meeting on Thursday before the final decision is taken at the Clinical Commissioning Group’s board meeting next Tuesday.

! The units at Clacton District Hospital andHarwich’s Fryatt Hospital will open when a woman is in the advanced stages of labour.

Onceamum has given birth they will be discharged when ready or sent to Colchester General for more care, because they cannot stay overnight