Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting criticised North East MP Dehenna Davison’s pledge to re-open Bishop Auckland A+E in an exclusive interview with The Northern Echo.

Following a visit to Richardson Community Hospital on Saturday (February 25th), Wes Streeting, Shadow Health Secretary, commented upon Dehenna Davisons campaign to re-open a local A+E department.

When asked about supporting this campaign, Mr Streeting said: “Dehenna’s promise is a very good example of why politicians should not make promises without being sure they can keep them.”

He added: “I’ve no doubt she made that promise with the best of intentions, but she’s not been able to deliver, because it’s more complicated than that. It’s not necessarily the biggest priority for the NHS locally.”

Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland Dehenna Davison launched the campaign upon her election in 2019 after the A+E department closed in 2009.

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Supposed reasons for the closure included lack of doctors, insufficient resources and lack of funds to run the then three A+E departments in the trust efficiently. 

For 14 years now, users have been forced to travel twelve miles to use either Darlington Memorial Hospital or University Hospital Durham.

More recently, locals have been frustrated after recent meetings to progress the project in January were cancelled at short notice after local health representatives pulled out.

This comes as fears rise about the pressure the closure has placed on other A+E departments in the trust.

In January, Ms Davison said: "Reopening Bishop A&E is the best way to ease the pressure on Durham and Darlington and achieve an NHS in County Durham that works for everyone."

However, comments from the Shadow Health Secretary suggest a re-opening of the department seem unlikely.

Mr Streeting said: “I want to work with NHS leaders here and right across the country to make sure that we’ve got the right services in the right places, and meeting the need that’s there.”

In response to the Shadow Health Secretary's comments, Ms Davison said: “It was great to see the Labour frontbench remember where Bishop Auckland is, but a shame to hear they have no commitment to restoring the A&E they shamefully allowed to close under their watch in 2009.”

She added: “The public are fully behind this - why aren’t Labour?”