Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed closure of the accident and emergency wing at Darlington Memorial Hospital on mortality rates in that area.
The Better Health Programme is part of the Durham, Darlington, Tees, Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Sustainability and Transformation Plan.
At this stage no decisions have been made about changes to individual hospitals, and once firm proposals have been agreed, these will need to be subject to public consultation, planned for later this year.
NHS England is working with the local ambulance service to work through issues such as travel time, capacity and demand.