Infirmary to save money by cutting free milk

Date published: 19/11/2008

From the new year mothers will no longer be provided with free formula milk at Rochdale Infirmary as part of cost-cutting by Pennine Acute Trust.

New mums will have to purchase £5 tokens, which they can exchange for a pack of ten bottles of formula and teats.

The move is expected to save the Trust, which runs the Infirmary, around £30,000 a year, although they say they will not make a profit on the sales.

Parents can not make up their own formula in the Infirmary and the Infirmary will not store ready-made bottles to a contamination risk.

After a babies first feed, milk will only be provided free if their is a legitimate medical reason.

Up to March any mothers who do not have money for tokens will be able to borrow milk and pay for it later but from April, when the Trust will be running a campaign to raise awareness of the scheme, mums will only be able to get milk with a token.

A spokesman for the Trust said: "In line with national recommendations a large proportion of women who have had babies at Pennine Acute Trust breastfeed their babies.

"For mums of well babies who choose not to breastfeed, formula milk will be available for them to buy.

"The Trust will not be profiting from this change, but we do stress that babies with any medical requirement will have all feeds provided free of charge.

"The Trust has worked hard to increase the number of mothers who breastfeed by promoting its benefits."