Michael Fabricant is receiving an increasing number of letters from doctors and other health professionals expressing alarm that the Maternity Unit at the Victoria Hospital is to be axed along with other services.

Michael Fabricant says: “If these reports are true, they must be resisted at all costs. The Maternity Unit in Lichfield offers the highest standard of care by dedicated staff in pleasant surroundings. It is just not acceptable for the unit to be transferred out of the City. Except in complex medical conditions, health care should be provided locally to enable visits by relatives and friends and to minimise the stress always involved in any stay in hospital.

“If the South Staffordshire Health Authority are planning this retrograde step, I will oppose it. Uncertainty over the future of the Victoria Hospital in Lichfield and the Hammerwich Hospital has gone on for far too long affecting staffing morale and recruitment. It is also worrying to our community as the 15,000 plus petition of local people showed.

“The Health Authority were due to make their recommendations last year. It is now March and it really is time for this uncertainty to be finally resolved.”