HOSPITAL chiefs have approved proposals to scrap births at Dovercourt’s Fryatt Hospital from next April.

The move by Colchester Hospital Trust will save £347,000 a year in rent.

The proposal was announced earlier this month by chief executive Nick Hulme, who put his case to the trust’s board of directors on Wednesday.

The move to approve his proposals along with starting a “programme of engagement with local patients and the community” was agreed after just ten minutes of discussion.

No members of the public attended the meeting despite anger at the plans.

Mr Hulme said there had been no public consultation because of the “relatively small numbers” of pregnant women who would be affected.

Fewer than 44 women are expected to give birth in Harwich this year.

The changes mean mums-to-be listed for births at Fryatt Hospital are set to be told they can give birth at home or travel 19 miles to Clacton or Colchester.

Mr Hulme said: “The proposal is that the board endorses the decision that from the end of this financial year there is no longer the option for mothers to give birth at Harwich but all other ante-natal and post-natal facilities offered on the site are still available to women.”

He said the decision was “purely financial” and there was no suggestion of quality concerns at the Harwich unit.

In the last last financial year, only 44 women gave birth at Harwich – fewer than one a week.

Mr Hulme said dwindling numbers have driven up the cost of each delivery in terms of the rent paid.

Each costs the trust £8,000.

He added: “We would need to be delivering almost 200 births a year, if not more, for that to become a break even position.”

The decision will now be referred to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Public engagement sessions will take place over how the plan will work, but will not see the decision questioned.