A PUBLIC meeting to discuss the latest plans of a group campaigning to save the Friarage Hospital is being held on Friday evening.

The meeting is being branded a 'call to arms' for local people to have their say on the downgrading of A&E services at the Northallerton hospital.

The group will also discuss its progress on launching a judicial review, and the campaigners have instructed Irwin Mitchell solicitors to investigate and help them take action to prevent the proposals.

South Tees NHS Foundation Trust has temporarily downgraded the hospital to the status of an urgent care treatment centre, because of an inability to recruit key medical staff, particularly in relation to anaesthetists and experienced critical care doctors. The trust said it did not wish to comment while the legal process is being defined.

Holly Wilkinson from the campaign group said: "We are trying to give people and update of where we are and what we are trying to achieve. We are launching a judicial review because we want to know that everything that South Tees Hospital Trust said it has done has actually been done." The meeting is in Northallerton Town Hall at 7pm on Friday, April 5. To donate to the campaign visit crowdjustice.com/case/savethefriarage.