The state Department of Public Health will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 23 regarding Southcoast Hospitals Group’s Group’s proposed closure of the maternity unit at Tobey Hospital. 

The hearing will start at 6 p.m. at Rosebrook Event Center on 50 Rosebrook Place, Wareham.

Southcoast, which also owns and operates St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford and Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, plans to close Tobey’s maternity unit on Dec. 31 of this year. Following that closure, Tobey patients requiring maternity care would be directed to St. Luke’s Hospital, according to the release.

Southcoast said that the decision was part of its “innovative plan for maternity [and] newborn services.”