OUTRAGED staff claim delays in opening a maternity unit could put babies' lives at risk.

Blackbrook Maternity Unit was due to reopen on January 7, but staff were told yesterday that the new start had been put on hold indefinitely.

Now, the furious workers say the women of Fareham are being let down by Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

One member of staff, who did not want to be named, told the Daily Echo there were serious concerns about the consequences of the closure.

"We are needed. Ladies sometimes need to deliver immediately and if Blackbrook was not available it could mean the death of a baby," she said.

Staff were told at a meeting yesterday that plans to reopen the unit in Blackbrook House Drive were on hold again, leaving them concerned for their jobs.

"We as staff are being treated appallingly - the women of Fareham have been completely let down," the staff member added.

"No one working at the unit knows whether to start looking for another job or not, and they fear that even if the unit does open people will no longer have confidence in it.

"They are treating it like a ward closure, but it is not - it is an independent unit."

Blackbrook has been closed since August and has closed over the past two Christmases due to staff shortages, sickness and training reasons.

But mothers grew worried the unit might close down, and wrote in large numbers to protest at its prolonged closure, expressing concern that it might be closed forever.

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust spokeswoman Pat Forsyth said patients' safety was at the centre of the decision to leave the unit closed because of widespread staff shortages.

"We have to err on the side of safety, and this is the safest way. We have never had a situation like this before with so many people off sick."

She said the trust had decided not to set a firm date for reopening, and was now saying that it would not be within the next month.