The maternity unit at Clacton Hospital will remain closed for another three months.

The unit at the hospital in Freeland Road was originally shut on February 7, for about a month due to staff sickness.

However, Health bosses have now decided that it will not reopen until June 1.

The reason has been put down to continuing sickness among midwives in the Clacton area.

A spokesman for Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust said: "Until June 1 there will be no deliveries at the maternity unit at Clacton Hospital and mothers having their babies in hospital will go to the unit at Colchester General Hospital".

Antenatal and postnatal care will be available at Clacton between 9am and 5pm seven days a week.

All telephone calls to the maternity unit outside those hours will be automatically transferred to midwives in Colchester.

The spokesman emphasised that community midwifery services in the Clacton area, including home birth, will continue as normal.

Shirley Dow, Julie Abbey and Gigu Taylor, midwives at the Clacton unit, said they were sorry about the closure.

"It has been due to long-term sickness which has left us unable to staff the unit and give the care our mothers and babies deserve," they said

Published Tuesday, March 5, 2002