HEALTH chiefs have been quizzed over their plans for the future of Dorset's hospitals at a meeting in Dorchester.

Questions from councillors and members of the public had bosses from the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) on the defensive when they came to give a presentation to the joint health scrutiny committee at County Hall.

Prior to the meeting campaigners fighting to protect services at Dorset County Hospital gathered for a protest on the steps leading up to the building, with Dorchester mum Naomi Patterson saying they were sending a message to the CCG that their battle for children's and maternity services at the county town hospital goes on.

She said: "We are here today to make sure they know we are not going away.

"We are trying to get as many people as possible to attend public meetings and we are just waiting for the public consultation to really make ourselves heard."

Naomi added that the protestors were also considering another march in Dorchester ahead of the public consultation, which CCG chiefs confirmed would not be until September at the earliest.

A team from the CCG were giving an update at the meeting of progress on its Clinical Services Review, a proposed shake up of health services in the county in a bid to stave off a projected budget deficit of £158million by 2020.

Chief officer Tim Goodson confirmed that, while maternity and paediatric services at Dorset County Hospital were being considered in light of an independent review, no firm proposals had yet been put forward with work to look at networking with Yeovil District Hospital still being considered and linking up with hospitals in the east of the county the other alternative.

He said: "We have reached a position of impasse in trying to get some clinical consensus in terms of how should maternity and paediatric services be configured."

With the Royal Bournemouth Hospital confirmed as the CCG's preferred site for a major emergency hospital, and Poole Hospital a major planned hospital - clinical lead for urgent and emergency care Dr Simon Watkins insisted Dorset County Hospital would remain largely unchanged in future plans.

However, campaigner Naomi raised concerns at a proposal to downgrade the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) so it only takes babies born after 32 weeks, compared to 28 weeks currently with younger babies set to be treated at a specialist unit elsewhere in the future.

Mr Goodson said that the independent expert review had strongly recommended the changes to the SCBU.

Cllr Ros Kayes also questioned the CCG on why Dorset County Hospital could be deemed sustainable for the future in almost all other areas apart from maternity and paediatrics.

She said: "Surely there is an argument that keeping maternity and paediatrics at the same level would render the whole hospital more sustainable."

Dr Watkins said that the services would not work on the same network basis as many of the other hospital services.

Other concerns raised at the meeting included the importance of being able to travel for health care and the need to work closely with ambulance services.