SHADOW Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has attacked plans to close Rochdale's Infirmary's maternity unit.

He said closing the delivery ward alongside Bury Fairfield Hospital's would adversely effect the choice of expectant mothers.

His comments, made at The Royal College of Midwives annual conference at Manchester Central, drew loud applause from delegates.

In 2007, health chiefs agreed to reduce the number of maternity units in Greater Manchester from 12 to eight. The Infirmary's maternity unit is due to close by 2012.

It was claimed the closures would save lives because the remaining units would have more staff with better experience.

But Mr Lansley said: "The NHS is designing its service around the staffing requirements of the NHS, not around the access mothers are looking for."

After the event, Leila Williams, of Greater Manchester Children, Young People and Families' Network, the organisation which will implement the changes, said: "We have designed the services around what women said they wanted. We will have more services and every hospital will have a midwifery-led unit."

General secretary of the RCM Cathy Warwick said she thought Mr Lansley's comments were genuine but questioned how a Conservative government would pay to sustain the local units.

She said: "We can't maintain services without investment."