LITTLE else better stirs the emotions of residents in Darlington than a threat to their local hospital and that was exactly what the region’s Sustainability and Transformation Plan – prompted by NHS England and apparently clinically led – triggered.

With the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough secure in its status as a major trauma centre, under the plans Darlington Memorial Hospital and North Tees Hospital, Stockton, were left to fight it out to see which would also become a specialist emergency hospital.

This meant the loser would be downgraded to ‘local hospital’ status with the loss of services such as Accident and Emergency and maternity care.

There were fears expressed by some critics that this was all part of a cuts-driven agenda and could possibly even be a precursor to further privatisation which would eventually see powerful private American firms handed NHS contracts.

Although concerns had surfaced a year previous it wasn’t until November 2016 that The Northern Echo finally got its hands on a draft version of the STP, which covered Darlington, Durham, Teesside, Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby.

This was after the secrecy surrounding the plans had been shattered by Hartlepool Borough Council leader, Councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher, who took the unusual step of publishing them on the authority’s website, while expressing serious reservations about the process and a lack of transparency.

The thrust of the STP involved making sure patients got the best hospital treatment, which would see people involved in life-threatening emergencies being seen at a specialist hospital.

The aim was also to support people to stay well and independent for as long as possible by increasing health services in the community, as well using more technology for example to provide appointments via video link.

These were laudable ambitions, but opponents pointed to the fact that it could mean longer journeys for some to A&E, depending on where they lived, while much of what was being projected was not deliverable within current spending levels.

Journalists trying to report the story faced a confusing synergy with the costly ‘Better Health’ programme, a large-scale consultation which was also being driven by potential changes to hospital services.

Two groups went into battle on behalf of people likely to be affected, SOS Darlington, which got the backing of the town’s MP Jenny Chapman, who made standing up for the hospital one of her key election pledges.

In a move which crossed party boundaries she joined with Richmond Conservative MP Rishi Sunak, who was equally concerned about the knock-on effect for Northallerton’s Friarage Hospital, with both writing to officials to highlight a perceived bias in the STP process.

Then there was the more political 999 Call for the NHS, whose local representative, the redoubtable Jo Land, described the plans as “poison”.

I was with the megaphone touting Ms Land and a number of other protesters when – as far as I was concerned – unexpectedly a demonstration outside Darlington Memorial Hospital ended up with us gatecrashing a County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust board meeting inside, which was closed to the public.

After some toing and froing in which were ushered into a side room by startled staff it was agreed that the protestors could have 20 minutes to put their questions to senior executives present.

They were told that “people could die” and that they should fight “tooth and nail” to preserve services.

Chief executive Sue Jacques said the STP was a “position about some potentials for moving forward”, while chairman Professor Paul Keane said no decisions had been made – a line frequently trotted out by officials to anybody who enquired about the plans.

As a statutory consultee, Darlington Borough Council formally objected to the STP and its impact on the town’s hospital.

Meanwhile, a planned formal consultation process never really got going, being postponed in 2017.

Thereafter months of silence followed, until now and confirmation that key services such as A&E will be retained for the foreseeable future at all three general hospitals in the Tees Valley,

Somewhere Jo Land, and no doubt many others, may be quietly raising a glass in relief and celebration.

But with so many of us living longer and acquiring long-term health conditions, the increasing pressure on the NHS and the need to make it more robust, along with predictions of a huge financial deficit in health and social care in the region, you suspect another “transformation” of the service in our area could soon be on the cards again.