A TEAM of independent experts is due in Huddersfield next week to decide the fate of our maternity services.
And our plea to thousands of concerned readers is ... LET THEM KNOW YOU CARE.
The Examiner and local MPs have secured a review by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel of the plan to leave Huddersfield without full maternity services .
Now the panel has written to the Examiner, asking for readers' views - and we want you to give them.
So from now until July 7 please bombard it with your letters and emails, telling them just why you object to the proposals which will see Huddersfield mums-to-be heading along the Elland bypass to Halifax.
You let us know your views in your tens of thousands when the Examiner and others campaigned to keep the services here.
Now the panel needs to know the strength of feeling.
Members of the panel will be visiting Huddersfield and Calderdale on July 7 and 11 to review the issue, following a plea to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
Examiner editor Roy Wright, who travelled to Westminster to make a personal plea to Ms Hewitt, will meet panel members and present your views to them.
He said: "It is vital that people show the panel there is strong unease in Huddersfield about these plans.
"We have high hopes they will stop this switch of services.
"The panel's stated aim is to make sure decisions about local services are made at local level by the people directly affected.
"So if enough readers make their objections known we should be able to get the move halted.
"But it is down to everyone in Huddersfield to show they care."
The independent review is only looking at the proposal to move some maternity services from Huddersfield Royal Infirmary to the Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax.
Under the proposals the unit at Huddersfield would become midwife-led only.
In an emergency during labour mums would have to be taken to Halifax.
This review will NOT consider the moving of many other services patients feel strongly about.
Planned surgery, gynaecology and children's services will all be moved to Halifax.
Members of the panel will talk to people by appointment. They primarily want to hear from people who feel they have `new evidence'.
By this they mean evidence that was not submitted during the formal consultation or information that people feel has not already been heard.
Members also want to meet community representatives. This could include councillors, spokespeople for patient groups or other concerned organisations.
A spokesman for the review panel said: "If you feel you have any new information that was not submitted during the formal consultation, or feel you have not been heard, we would like to hear you."
All conclusions reached by the panel will be made public.
The group - which includes hospital bosses, consultants, a retired bishop and university tutors - will speak to both sides and make a decision in the autumn.
People who would like to make an appointment or give new evidence should get in touch with the communications team at West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority at sha.enquiries@westyorks. nhs.uk or call 0113 2952141.
