Even the most naively optimistic health chief wouldn't have expected an easy time at the final public meeting on a controversial hospital shake-up plan which could close Huddersfield's A&E.

But even a sceptical journalist, such as myself, didn't expect what descended, at times, into little more than a Punch and Judy show.

Local NHS chiefs behind the Right Care Right Time Right Place plan struggled to talk above heckles, boos and general derision from a capacity crowd inside the Revell Ward suite at the John Smith's Stadium.

Health chiefs squirmed and looked stony faced as controversial aspects of the plan were broached - and rapidly shouted down, such was the strength of feeling.

REACTION: Readers condemn hospital meeting walkout "rent a mob"

Chair of CCG Dr Steve Ollerton takes the strain at the A&E meeting
Chair of CCG Dr Steve Ollerton takes the strain at the A&E meeting

Many of the same issues came up time and time again via angry interjections: ambulances delayed on the Calderdale Way, the paucity of beds at the proposed new Huddersfield hospital and the financially crippling PFI which many believe is driving the unpopular proposal.

Health protestors make their feelings clear

Some believed the meeting - and the proposal it forms a part of - was little more than box-ticking and they weren't afraid to let authors of the hospital shake-up know.

Watch mass walkout at A&E question and answer session

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Health bosses tried to disabuse the crowd of the notion that the plan was a done deal - but it failed to wash with most of the assembled company.

Then at 8pm, around 200 people simply got up and walked out of the meeting.

Chanting and the honking of air horns from a rowdy demonstration outside also made it into the third-floor conference suite during quieter moments.

Protestors chant outside John Smith's Stadium

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Under the Right Care Right Time Right Place plan, Huddersfield Royal Infirmary will be demolished and replaced with a smaller hospital.

It will have an urgent care centre but crucially, no emergency care centre.Emergency care will be centralised at an expanded Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax.