A COUNCIL leader fears there will be a ‘fatality’ if plans go ahead to reduce accident and emergency services in Darlington’s Memorial Hospital.

Councillor Bill Dixon, who is also chairman of the Tees Valley Combined Authority transport committee, said a recent experiment to try out public transport’s ability to get people to and from hospital had raised serious concerns.

He said the town’s rush hour resulted in traffic almost grinding to a halt which could have a devastating impact on ambulances responding to emergencies getting from rural areas of Teesdale, Weardale and North Yorkshire.

Speaking at a Darlington Borough Council cabinet meeting, Cllr Dixon said: “Just getting through Darlington can be very difficult – there’s going to be a fatality. We are going to be looking at gridlock of 30-35 minutes just to get round the ring road. I think we should be talking to people from North Yorkshire and County Durham because they will have something to add to the debate.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Anne-Marie Curry raised concerns about problems experienced by people travelling between Hartlepool and Stockton due NHS service changes.

“We need to ensure that the public transport link is good,” she said. “The link between Hartlepool and North Tees in Stockton is absolutely dire.”

The meeting also heard that the consultation process for the area’s NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) has been delayed from June until September.

The STP and the Better Health Programme are looking at delivering vital services in hospitals across the country while maximising the use of medical experts.

A spokesman for the Better Health Programme said: “We no longer have the right level of expertise available in every hospital 24/7 for every service. This means patients experience varying quality of care depending on when and where they are treated.

“In life threatening situations, our doctors believe patients should be taken by ambulance to a hospital where experienced teams of staff are available, 24 hours per day, seeing high numbers of patients with similar problems. We are working closely with the ambulance service about how we do this.

“We are also analysing the impact on relatives and visitors travelling by car or public transport.”