FEARS have been raised about lives potentially being lost after it was confirmed for the first time that four of the region’s hospitals could house just three emergency care centres.

The potential of a “four into three” outcome has again raised the spectre of A&E and other services being lost from Darlington Memorial Hospital.

A statement by the Better Health Programme said it would examine the case for the Darlington hospital, University Hospital of North Durham, North Tees Hospital, in Stockton and James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, to each become one of three emergency centres offering an “enhanced level of care”.

Doctors leading the programme, which is a partnership between local NHS clinical commissioning groups and foundation trusts in Durham and Teesside, believe that patients with serious or life threatening needs should be treated in specialist centres with the best expertise and facilities in order to maximise their chances of survival – even if that means going past the nearest hospital.

While to date health chiefs have stressed no decisions have been taken, campaigners are ramping up their protests against a possible downgrade in Darlington and today (Saturday, July 2) a rally by the group Save Our Services Darlington is taking place at the Pease statue in the town from 11am.

Darlington MP Jenny Chapman, who is encouraging people to attend, said: “They have not been that explicit about this before and I welcome some additional clarity.

“However we need to be extremely clear with the decision makers that our view is that Darlington must retain its A&E facility because of the size of the town and the wider population it serves.

“No clinical evidence has been put forward to date to suggest that there is a problem with the current arrangements as far as A&E, intensive care and maternity services are concerned and all these are interlinked.

“It is critical that we fight hard to keep these services and I would not be doing this if I thought it was a fait accompli.”

Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham said: “We have to ensure there is adequate A&E cover for the whole of the sub region and unfortunately the potential for that being compromised is compounded by the poor performance of the North East Ambulance Service.”

The MP said that forcing ambulances to travel further distances in order that patients can receive emergency treatment had a “potential knock on effect which could cost lives” and would impact on the capacity available.

North Yorkshire County Council Councillor Carl Les repeated previous concerns that the potential removal of services in Darlington would impact on communities living in Richmondshire and north Hambleton.

He said: “This might disadvantage some of the residents at the top end of the county who already have to travel considerable distances to access the existing provision.”

In a statement GP and clinical lead Neil O’Brien said: “The view of the clinical leadership of the programme is that having the right workforce available to meet patients’ needs 24/7 means we need to look at specialist emergency care for adults and children being provided from fewer sites.

“We will be looking seriously at the case for each of the four hospitals in Darlington, Durham and Tees which currently provide A&E being one of up to three emergency centres offering an enhanced level of care in the future.

“Examples where patients benefit from specialist emergency care include treatment for very serious injury and for heart attack, stroke and internal bleeding.

“The programme is reaching an important stage, with work beginning to develop and assess possible solutions.

“Some people believe that organisations have already made key decisions which will determine how services will be provided in future. This is not the case.”

A further series of engagement events is being held this month before a draft shortlist of scenarios is drawn up in September. A formal public consultation on any options on the table is due to begin in November and a final decision will be made in April next year.

When The Northern Echo approached representatives of the Better Health Programme to establish what the latest announcement could mean, a spokeswoman said any concrete proposals were a way off.

She said: “We are looking at options and developing potential scenarios. We don’t do these things behind closed doors, we go out and speak to the public.”

* A further series of events are taking place as part of the Better Health Programme which the public are invited to attend.

They are at: Consett, The Demi, 45 Albert Rd, Consett DH8 5QU on Wednesday, July 6 between 1pm and 3pm;

Sedgefield Racecourse, Racecourse Rd, Sedgefield TS21 2HW on Thursday, July 7 between 1pm and 3pm;

Stockton Northshore Academy, Talbot St, Stockton-on-Tees TS20 2AY on Wednesday, July 13 between 6pm and 8pm;

Barnard Castle, GSK Social, Strathmore Rd, Barnard Castle DL12 8DT on Thursday, July 14 between 6pm and 8pm;

Durham, Alington House, 4 N Bailey, Durham DH1 3ET on Monda,y July 18 between 6pm and 8pm;

Hartlepool College, Stockton Street, Hartlepool TS24 7NT on Tuesday, July 19 between 6pm and 8pm;

Eston, Inspire to Learn, Normanby Rd, TS6 9AE on Wednesday, July 20 between 4pm and 6pm;

Darlington, Mercure Hotel, 9-12 Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NW on Thursday, July 21 between 6pm and 8pm.

THREE emergency care centres will be created at four of the region’s hospitals. The hospitals under consideration by health chiefs are:

  • Darlington Memorial Hospital
  • An acute care hospital, which has approximately 463 beds, it was officially opened in 1933 although much of the older hospital site is now a visitor’s car park. A&E services operate on the site. It is operated by the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.
  • University Hospital of North Durham
  • Like Darlington it is an acute care hospital with an A&E department and replaced the old Dryburn hospital. Last month plans were announced to expand its A&E, which was built in 2001. It has approximately 523 beds and is managed by the same trust as Darlington.
  • University Hospital North Tees, Stockton
  • It provides A&E, planned medical and surgical care, maternity services and a wide range of diagnostic services and outpatient clinics. It has approximately 563 beds and is part of the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.
  • The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough
  • The biggest of the four hospitals. Its A&E department is the designated major trauma centre for the southern half of the northern region and the hospital has a dedicated 24-hour acute admissions unit. It has more than a thousand beds and is operated by the South Tees NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust.