A REDDITCH granddad whose daughter-in-law gave birth in a full-to-capacity maternity department at the Alexandra Hospital on Sunday thinks plans to scrap it are "ludicrous".

David Towler says he does not understand how health chiefs can even consider axing the unit when there is "clearly such a need for it".

His son's fiancee, Amanda Evans, 20, had her second child at the hospital in the early hours of Sunday.

But when she was admitted hours earlier, she was told she may have to give birth in a standard ward because there was no room for her in the maternity department.

"This really stressed her out as she'd already been sent home twice because they didn't have room for her," said Mr Towler, of Auxerre Avenue, Greenlands.

He added: "The maternity department was on a 'code red' - there was absolute pandemonium down there."

Mr Towler claims some expectant mums were even being turned away and sent off to Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester.

"It is ludicrous. I just can't see why they are thinking of closing the maternity ward at the Alex when there is such a demand."

He said Miss Evans was discharged shortly after the birth because they did not have the room to keep her in for observation.

A Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman confirmed the unit was busy but said no transferals had to be made.

"We have made it clear on many occasions since the proposals for maternity services were published that any move of obstetrics from the Alexandra to Worcestershire Royal are clinically motivated.

''This point is clearly made in the pre-consultation document that's on our website."

He said because of the low numbers of deliveries at the Alex, it was hard to recruit and retain suitably qualified staff.

"I stress the unit at the Alex is not unsafe at the moment and the staff there are working very hard to keep the service going but we can see clearly the difficulties in recruiting and retaining suitable staff are going to get worse and worse."

The spokesman added that this scenario was not unique to Worcestershire and that no decisions would be made until after a formal public consultation.

Save the Alex campaigners held a peaceful demonstration outside Studley Village Hall last night.

The hall was the venue for a meeting of the village parsih council and trust chief executive John Rostill.