THE controversial closure of a North-East hospital’s accident and emergency department went ahead last night – despite warnings that it would have a devastating impact on the region’s health service.

Critics say the decision to scrap 24-hour emergency care at the £67m Bishop Auckland General Hospital will place an intolerable burden on hospitals in Darlington and Durham City.

Yet, at midnight, the hospital’s A&E department was downgraded to an Urgent Care Unit, despite a long-running public campaign to save it.

From today, residents in the Bishop Auckland area, including Weardale, who need treatment for a serious illness or injury, will need to travel to Darlington Memorial Hospital or the University Hospital of North Durham.

Campaigners from the Save Our Hospital group warned that the move could cost lives and pledged they would closely monitor events in the next few weeks.

Tony Blair laid the foundation stone of the new Bishop Auckland General Hospital in 2000.

When it opened two years later, officials hailed a new beginning for health care in south-west Durham.

Yet this morning it has a new name – Bishop Auckland Hospital – to reflect its downgraded status to a centre for planned surgery and consultant appointments.

From today, a mixture of GPs and nurses who can only deal with minor illnesses or injuries, will replace specially trained A&E doctors.

Health chiefs last night sought to reassure people that the new arrangements would be safe and that measures had been put in place to deal with the changes.

But campaigners who have opposed the downgrade said they feared that not enough has been done to increase capacity at neighbouring hospitals in Darlington and Durham City to cope with the 30,000 patients who use Bishop Auckland A&E every year.

The Save Our Hospital group said the neighbouring hospitals were already struggling to cope and the extra influx could lead to chaos.

But trust officials said Bishop Auckland would still play an important role in urgent care.

They also announced two extra A&E consultants had been recruited to help Durham and Darlington cope.

Extra space has also been found at Darlington Memorial Hospital to accommodate sick children.

The controversial closure of the Bishop Auckland A&E unit is part of a wider reorganisation to concentrate more acute medical services at two rather than three sites in County Durham.

NHS bosses said that acute medical services needed to be concentrated in Durham and Darlington if they are to remain viable.

The new Urgent Care Unit at Bishop Auckland will operate round-the-clock, with a minimum of seven clinical staff, including two GPs, on duty during the day.

During the night and at weekends, the number of staff will be increased, with a maximum of six GPs at peak times.

Sam Zair, leader of the Save Our Hospital group, predicted the downgrading would confuse patients, endanger lives and cause “chaos and overcrowding”

at Darlington Memorial Hospital and the University Hospital of North Durham.

Coun Zair, who represents Bishop Auckland on Durham County Council, said not enough had been done to increase staffing and capacity at Darlington and Bishop Auckland.

This was already leading to increased pressure on the two A&E departments and longer waits for treatment, he said.

“I am appalled more has not been done to put extra staff and extra capacity in place in time for this change-over,” he said.

“They say people have got a choice in health care these days, but people in the Bishop Auckland area have had the choice to be treated at their local hospital taken away from them.”

A source within the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, told campaigners no extra staff had been taken on to coincide with the changeover and the numbers of patients attending A&E departments in Durham and Darlington had increased markedly in recent weeks.

There was also very limited space to accommodate extra patients in A&E, the campaigners were told.

Patients in Durham regularly faced three-hour waits to be seen, while in Darlington patients waited two-and-ahalf- hours, the source said.

But a spokeswoman said: “The trust has in place the capacity to manage any additional patients at Darlington or Durham following the changes. The trust has recruited two additional consultants and seven-and-a-half full-time nursing staff will be transferring from A&E at Bishop Auckland.”

She said extra medical and nursing cover would be provided if it was needed during the transitional period.

She said the trust is achieving its four-hour wait performance target for A&E “and will continue to do so following the changes”.

The overwhelming majority of patients are seen well within this waiting time, she said.