A ROYAL Bournemouth Hospital boss has dismissed claims that the maternity unit is set to close, with women giving birth at Poole hospital instead.

Chief executive Tony Spotswood spoke out after hundreds of people signed a petition opposing “plans” to close shut the Bournemouth maternity unit.

The e-petition on the government website, which will close on March 13, has been created by Judith Bradfield and signed by 814 people.

It states: “There are plans to close the midwife-led unit at Bournemouth Hospital.

Poole has inadequate provision for the extra women it will need to accommodate.

“Despite promises to give women choice, this government are consistently standing by and watching chief executives of NHS trusts undermine midwife-led units and then close them.

“Midwife-led units have equal, if not better, statistics than consultant-led units.

“It is also cheaper for women to deliver at midwife led units. So why are these units closing?”

The petition urges women to ask the government to stop the NHS targeting women’s services and to provide safe comfortable surroundings for women to give birth.

It also calls for women to stop the closure of Bournemouth hospital’s midwife-led unit and honour the promise for women to have choice in Bournemouth.

But Mr Spotswood told the Daily Echo: “There are no current plans to change the way maternity services are provided. Any reconfiguration of services will be for the new organisation to consider, should the merger go ahead, and the new trust will consult fully on any changes that might be proposed.”

He added: “It is essential that women have the choice of either having a home birth or giving birth at a midwifery-led unit or obstetric-led service, as they currently have. This will not change.”