Bury Primary Care Trust said the plans would "considerably disadvantage" people in Bury, Rochdale and Rossendale and urged the Strategic Health Authority to "urgently and robustly" consider other options.
However, a final decision on which units will be saved from a number of hospitals assessed under a regional shake-up of children's services will not be made until June. Public consultation about the plans will continue until next week.
The major review was ordered after health bosses said there were not enough specialist doctors to treat sick babies.
Regional neo-natal and paediatric services would be streamlined from 14 sites, including Bury, Trafford, Rochdale and Salford, to eight sites. Three "centres of excellence" including intensive care baby beds and specialist services would be at Manchester's St Mary's Hospital, the Royal Oldham and Royal Bolton.
North Manchester, Stepping Hill, Tameside, Wythenshawe and Wigan would also provide in-patient maternity and children's services under the preferred option. But campaigners in Bury, who have marched through the streets and organised a 30,000-name petition, fear young lives would be put at risk because parents would face increased journey times to get care.
Dr Said Hany, president of campaign group the Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society, said: "We feel that the best option for the population of Bury, Rochdale and Rossendale, a population of a quarter of a million, would be to include a hospital north of the M60."
Society trustee and mother-of-three Sharron Entwistle, 35, from Rossendale, welcomed the PCT's opposition.
She said: "We are not against change as long as the right decisions are made.
"Closing services at Fairfield is not the way forward. It is ludicrous to take services away from Bury and take choices away from expectant mothers.
"Lives could be lost," she said.
Should the baby care unit stay at Bury? Have your say. Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
There are no comments about this at the moment.