MOTHERS from all over Wiltshire who want to keep maternity services in Chippenham viable have been urged to use the community hospital.

Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group announced that it was closing four postnatal beds in Chippenham leaving just three while the birthing unit at Trowbridge is to close completely.

But CCG chairman Dr Richard Sandford-Hill said the future of Chippenham could be made more secure if mums from west Wiltshire opted to go to Chippenham.

He said: “The number of births at the smaller units is very small. This is partly down to women having their babies at an older age so they are referred to one of the bigger hospitals.

“But if women who might have gone to Trowbridge were to pick to go to Chippenham and this puts numbers up significantly it could made a difference.”