A CONSULTANT has made an outspoken attack on the way a hospital has been treated over the years.

Speaking on the eve of a major rally organised by the Save Our Hospital campaign, and hours before a consultation meeting in Bishop Auckland about the future of the town’s hospital, Dr Malcolm Bateson, said: “It was once a national treasure, but it has been kicked to pieces.”

The retiring consultant physician, who has worked at the hospital for 27 years, said Bishop Auckland General Hospital once had one of the best reputations in the region, with an outstanding paediatric department.

He said that in the Eighties, medical students chose to go there rather than anywhere else in the North-East to study paediatrics. But he said that since the Nineties, “the services we built up have gradually been stripped away”.

He said the £67m hospital, which was rebuilt in 2002, could have a bright future if health officials were imaginative.

Dr Bateson said that with the right commitment, the half-empty hospital could house a county-wide full-time acute stroke unit, a cardiac imaging centre, a unit carrying out stomach operations on dangerously obese patients and an in-patient detox centre for alcoholics.

He urged officials to set up an “iconic”

emergency care centre that could be a model for British hospitals.

Run by medical staff and supported by local GPs, he said the centre could offer a walk-in one-hour service.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust wants to centralise acute medical facilities in Darlington and Durham City.

Its proposal would remove acute medicine from Bishop Auckland, leaving the hospital with an urgent care centre rather than an accident and emergency department.

Meanwhile, Clive Auld, from the Save Our Hospital group, said he was extremely disappointed with Wear Valley District Council after five banners advertising the rally, in Bishop Auckland Market Place, at 11am tomorrow, were taken down. He has vowed to put them back up.

Bob Hope, acting head of the council, said: “We acted in response to public concerns and were following normal policy.”

This week, Spennymoor Mayor Ian Harrington handed over a petition on behalf of town residents protesting against cuts at Bishop Auckland. He said: “It is time for the trust management to listen to the views of local people.”

■ See tomorrow’s paper for a report of last night’s meeting.