If plans for a temporary suspension of maternity services go ahead at Daisy Hill hospital, there could be "knock-on effects" at Craigavon Area Hosptial, the Southern Trust's chief executive has said.

Steve Spoerry said they "don't want this to happen" but it "looks more likely than not" that it will.

On Monday the trust, which oversees the hospital, said it has not been able to recruit consultant obstetricians to fill vacancies at the hospital.

It is preparing to temporarily move inpatient maternity services to Craigavon and, if plans go ahead, no babies will be delivered at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry.

Speaking on BBC's The View, Spoerry said they are doing their best to "ensure the safety of every single patient".

He also said it was "undesirable but realistic" that Craigavon Area Hospital could cope with about 1,700 extra births at their facility.

"But I don't want to mislead you, there are knock-on effects from that," he continued.

"There's potentially a reduction in elective surgical capacity, we certainly lose some medical beds and we need to think about how we re-provide those.

"It's a difficult problem to deal with," Spoerry told the programme.

Spoerry said that "the fundamental problem is we are not training enough obstetricians".

"That makes it difficult. Hospitals that suffer more from that tend to be further afield from the centres of training - which is Belfast - and Daisy Hill is in Newry. The rota is relatively frequent at Daisy Hill also.

"I would like to understand the ratio of obstetricians to deliveries in hospitals in Northern Ireland and the department is working to pull that together."

He said he had just come from a public open meeting in Newry where members of the public raised issues like "accessibility of the service to woman in the area" as well as the "continued viability" of Daisy Hill hospital was a concern.

He said the trust was still trying to recruit and rejected any suggestion from the SDLP's Justin McNulty that it was a "transformation by collapse strategy", saying they had worked hard to keep obstetrics, and build up the emergency department and acute medicine at the hospital.

Spoerry said they had "approached our friends in the HSE (Irish health service) about any possible help at the moment in this particular problem".

It is thought ante and postnatal clinics will continue in Newry but alternative arrangements will be made for women due to have their babies in Daisy Hill from November.

However, campaigners are concerned that it could mean another service moves away from the hospital.

Citing staffing issues, the trust has said it "cannot run a safe maternity service without the required medical cover".

It added that "unfortunately that is a position that the trust is having to plan for at this moment in time".

In the last year, 4,481 babies were born within the Southern Trust's two maternity services: 1,713 at Daisy Hill Hospital and 2,768 at Craigavon Area Hospital.

BBC News NI understands that Daisy Hill Hospital's maternity unit has become reliant on locum and temporary staff.

The trust said its medical workforce pressures reflect a wider shortage of consultant obstetricians across Northern Ireland and the UK.

Dr Beverley Adams, the divisional medical director for Integrated Maternity and Women's Health at the trust, said affected women will be informed about the possible need to move the birthing part of their journey as they prioritise "safe patient care".

Adams said she understood that travel time would be a factor for more women, but the trust had dealt with that before and they have systems in place that "can deal with that safely again".

Anyone who is concerned should contact their midwife first or call the dedicated maternity information line on 028 3756 1325 which will be open between 14:00 BST and 17:00 on Monday to Friday.