MORE than 100 mothers and mothers-to-be met last night to voice their anger over the closure of a much-loved maternity unit.

The Mums' Army, protesting against the closure of Guisborough Maternity Unit, heard from former staff of the popular unit about the growing staff crisis which led to its closure last Friday.

An ex-midwife at the unit told the meeting at Laurence Jackson School, Guisborough, of the despair felt by former colleagues, many of whom had subsequently retired.

The meeting was organised by a special committee of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council set up to scrutinise the closure.

No one from South Tees NHS Trust attended the meeting, but managers had previously said the closure was temporary, although no date for reopening has been fixed.

At last night's meeting, Pam Reveley, who worked at the unit for 13 years, said she left along with others because she was told she also had to work at the much larger James Cook Hospital, in Middlesbrough. She said the midwives were unable to give the same quality of care at the larger hospital.

She said: "Staff shortage is an excuse to close Guisborough Maternity Unit. I actually volunteered to go back to work but, like a lot of former midwives in the audience tonight, I was told I had to work some of the time in Middlesbrough. That's not the kind of supportive midwifery we want to do."

During the meeting, a number of points were raised which the committee was asked to investigate, including the midwifery staff rotation system; the issue of public transport from villages to the Middlesbrough hospital; the absence of a fixed date for the hospital to reopen; an alleged lack of notice given to mothers-to-be over the closure; and the withdrawal of other services from East Cleveland.

The committee said it would compile a full report on the closure within three months.