TRAGIC families are calling for full maternity services to be reinstated at Bishop Auckland General Hospital after two unborn baby girls died in the days following a controversial shake-up.

Dean and Andrea Harrison, of Newton Aycliffe, and Paul and Clare Storey, of Shildon, have been promised a full investigation by bosses at the County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals Trust.

The Harrison's daughter Olivia died during an emergency 12-mile car dash to Darlington, two days after Bishop Auckland was stripped of medical and surgical cover.

Mrs Harrison had arrived at the General to have her baby expecting a straightforward birth.

But when Olivia showed signs of distress, the couple were told to drive to Darlington Memorial Hospital in the family car because no ambulance was available.

She was already dead when she was delivered at Darlington by emergency Caesarian section weighing 6lbs 8 1/2 oz.

Her parents believe she died half way between the two centres.

Mrs Harrison, 30, said: "Nobody gave us any indication that it was so serious and they weren't expecting an emergency when we got to Darlington.

"Now I believe that Olivia had been in distress all day and I should never have been told to go to Bishop Auckland.

The Harrisons, who have two sons Alex, three, and Elliot, nine, were later told by a consultant that their longed-for daughter would have lived if full facilities had been available at Bishop Auckland, or if she had been sent to Darlington earlier.

Olivia had been due to be one of the first babies born in the new, low-tech suite at Bishop Auckland, hailed before it opened two weeks ago as one of the safest places to have an uncomplicated birth.

In south Durham, only the Darlington maternity unit is equipped to deal with complications during birth.

Mrs Harrison said: "Even when we arrived in Darlington they weren't expecting an emergency. When we left Bishop she was alive, when we got to Darlington she was dead.

Mr Harrison, 29, said: "We chose Bishop because we thought it was a new hospital with first class facilities. When Tony Blair opened it he said it was the bees knees, but there is nothing there.

"We have know since December 23 that Andrea was having a girl and she has been called Olivia since then. It was our best Christmas present, a girl after two boys."

Clare Storey, 32, was turned away from the unit on May 13 when she kept an appointment she thought would lead to a safer birth for her daughter Chloe Olivia.

Because the baby was lying in breech position in her womb, she arrived believing that medical staff would attempt to turn her round into a safer position for delivery.

But with no emergency medical or surgical cover then available at Bishop Auckland, she was given another appointment for May 18 at Darlington Memorial Hospital where emergency facilities are available.

Sadly, by then the baby had died and Mrs Storey had to undergo the distress of a still birth.

She said: "I can't help thinking that if they had turned the baby at Bishop Auckland and I had gone into labour, she would at least have had a chance if there had been emergency facilities still there.

"They should never have taken everything away from Bishop."

Mrs Storey said her husband Paul and children Stacey, 14, Daniel, ten, and eight-year-old Jessica, were devastated by the baby's death.

Bishop Auckland MP Derek Foster is asking for a full report on both cases. His own investigations have confirmed that no ambulance was available for Mrs Harrison.

He said: "I think the general public, who had tremendous faith in the previous arrangements at Bishop Auckland, will want to be reassured that every action is being taken to ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen."

Two years ago, when the plans were announced, staff and patients signed a petition and angry women packed public meetings.

Betty Todd, who chaired the now-defunct South Durham and Weardale Community Health Council, said: "We objected because we feared this sort of thing would happen. They should go back to providing emergency cover at Bishop Auckland."

Hospital managers are this week conducting a clinical review of both cases.