A NORTH-EAST MP has submitted two petitions to Parliament calling for services to be reinstated and protected at hospitals in her constituency.

The documents handed over by Helen Goodman call for midwife-led maternity and breast screening units to be reinstated at Bishop Auckland General Hospital and to guarantee its urgent care centre's funding for the next ten years.

The submission to the House of Commons on Wednesday (Nov 25) follows months of campaigning, including an awareness-raising event at Bishop Auckland’s Newgate Centre on Saturday, September 12 when she was joined by a number of county councillors.

The MP for Bishop Auckland’s second petition calls for services at Richardson Hospital in Barnard Castle to be protected, again for the next ten years.

The hospital on John Street serves Teesdale which, Mrs Goodman argues, is relatively isolated and has limited public transport, heightening the need for a local hospital. 3,549 signatures were collected from County Durham residents worried about local hospital services in their areas.

Mrs Goodman said: “It is clear from the many conversations I have had that local people feel strongly that these services need to be retained in Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle.

"Our midwife-led maternity unit [at Bishop Auckland General Hospital] remains closed on a ‘temporary’ basis and when the mammography equipment at Bishop Auckland Hospital failed in July, 2013, the new state-of-the-art equipment went to Darlington.

"We don’t want the same thing to happen to the urgent care centre at Bishop Auckland or the Richardson Hospital.”

A spokesman for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said: “Patient safety must be our priority, and the midwife-led unit remains closed because our consultants and midwives do not believe they could guarantee a safe outcome for mums who developed complications during labour and needed to be transferred to a consultant-led unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital.”

The Trust highlighted that routine breast screening – in the form of mammogram checks every few years - continues to be provided from mobile units in Bishop Auckland and the Dales. It added that there has also been a £0.5m investment in orthopedic theatres at the Darlington hospital.

Speaking on behalf of the Richardson Hospital, the spokesman added: “We recently made some changes to the way the beds are configured at the hospital, amalgamating two wards. This was based on patient occupancy data and ensuring safe staffing levels for quality patient care.

“We are committed to working with the local clinical commissioning groups and other partners to discuss opportunities for utilising the space at the Richardson Hospital in different ways and developing further service provision from the hospital.”