HOSPITAL chiefs have admitted the future of Darlington Memorial Hospital’s Accident and Emergency department will be subject to debate.

On Friday, Darlington MP Jenny Chapman demanded answers over the future of services at the hospital, as persistent rumours of a potential downgrade of A&E, maternity and intensive care facilities gathered pace.

Today, the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) issued a statement and said the sustainability and effectiveness of emergency services in its hospitals was being discussed as part of a programme set to overhaul NHS services in the wider region.

It confirmed a public engagement exercise is currently underway in relation to acute, emergency and other medical services across the trust but said no decisions had been made.

Senior consultants are currently working with GPs and colleagues at hospitals in Darlington, Durham and Teesside on The Better Health programme.

The programme aims to identify how clinical outcomes and experience can be improved and consider how care and services can be delivered differently.

It covers areas including A&E, maternity services, acute medicine and surgery, interventional radiology and critical care.

As part of Better Health, clinicians will discuss where services should be, how to access them and how to match clinical resource to population needs.

Ahead of a formal consultation period, a series of public meetings are being staged to allow people to have their say about the services that matter to them.

The next one will take place at Darlington’s Dolphin Centre from noon on Saturday, May 7.

A spokeswoman for CDDFT said: “As an NHS organisation we cannot stand still - advances in medical science, technology and the specialist skills of NHS professionals have made huge contributions to improved survival rates, outcomes and quality of life over the past few decades.

“If we want to be able to continue driving improvements and delivering high quality, sustainable services which meet the needs and expectations of our patients now and into the future against a backdrop of pressures in recruiting specialist staff, delivering quality and access standards and within financial constraints then we need to consider ways in which care and services could be delivered differently.”

The statement came as Darlington’s MP said she would campaign to keep services at Darlington Memorial Hospital (DMH) local.

Today, Jenny Chapman accused CDDFT of not doing enough to make people aware of the on-going engagement exercise and upcoming public meetings.

She said: “It’s interesting that they’ve suddenly decided to speak to people after all this time.

“They’ve allowed a situation to develop where trust is being eroded in the community.

“This trust needs openness as so far, this has been the worst way to conduct a public engagement exercise.

“They’re starting from a position where they’ve blown it and everyone’s suspicious.

“If these meetings have been planned for a while, they haven’t done much to let people know what they’re about – I didn’t know.

“The fact there’s going to be a meeting to discuss the future of the A&E department is a big clue that something’s afoot.”

She added: “I hope this meeting will be well attended and I’m sure decision makers will be left in no doubt as to the feelings of people locally about these services.

“Darlington needs a full A&E service that is consultant led, it needs a maternity service and an ITU service for the simple reason that it’s the biggest town in the trust’s area and serves a population bigger than that.”

Ms Chapman will host a public meeting prior to the Better Health meeting on Saturday from 10.30am, though the venue is yet to be confirmed.

For more information, visit jennychapman.co.uk.

To book a place at the Better Health event, visit nhsbetterhealth.org.uk/get-involved/