FOREIGN Secretary William Hague is developing a battleplan to stop the proposed downgrading of services at a hospital.

The Richmondshire MP has instructed his staff to produce a list of realistic journey times to hospitals in the region, to counter information produced by the NHS following a recommendation to reduce services at the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton.

If the National Clinical Advisory Team’s proposal is passed, children needing inpatient care and mothers at higher risk or who prefer a consultant- led unit may have to have their babies at hospitals further away from their homes.

The hospital’s 122,000 patients’ access to the services has repeatedly featured as a key issue in the debate since the recommendations were announced in January, which led to NHS York and North Yorkshire Primary Care Trust publishing a list of distances to Darlington, Middlesbrough, Keighley, Lancaster, Harrogate, York and Northallerton.

A spokesman for the trust said it concentrated purely on distances, as journey times were variable.

Dr Vicky Pleydell, of the Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group, has said local families would continue to have a choice about where to access consultant-led maternity services, whether or not the services at the Friarage were downgraded.

She said: “For example, families living in the remote village of Hawes can access consultant-led maternity services in Lancaster and Darlington as well as the Friarage and they are all about the same distance away. Similarly, Darlington is a closer option for families living in Reeth than the Friarage.”

But Mr Hague, who said in 2005 that it was vital to maintain the general hospital’s maternity service due to the rural nature of North Yorkshire, wants the debate to focus on the length of time it would take residents from the Friarage’s catchment area to reach other hospitals.

Where the trust said patients faced a 35-mile journey from Hawes to Lancaster General Infirmary, residents have estimated that the journey often takes 90 minutes in poor weather – and that was why no baby from Hawes had been born in Lancaster since 1978.

Residents have told Mr Hague that the trust’s suggestion of driving a 38-mile route from Leyburn to Keighley would be impossible in winter, and said they would instead face a 52-mile journey, taking two hours.