Watch our Periscope live stream of the meeting:

'Public were told to shut up'

“We attended the CCG meeting at Briar Court today and, despite the agenda stating that questions from the floor would be taken, none were accepted and basically the public were told to shut up.
The option to retain both A&Es at Huddersfield and Halifax is not even being considered.
It was also stated that there was nothing to be done about the terrible PFI contract that Calderdale has entered into - the CCCG is just waving a white flag in surrender and are not prepared to fight for the scrapping of this iniquitous contract.

Everyone with any interest in protesting against this closure should attend the public meeting in St. George’s Square on Saturday 20th January 2016 at 1.00pm.” - Andrew Alden

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Examiner says: Hands off our A&E

Following this afternoon’s meeting and the decision of health chiefs to put the HRI A&E plan to public consultation, we’ve launched our campaign to save Huddersfield’s accident and emergency department.

We will do all we can to support those individuals and those groups who have petitioned to save the unit - keep your eye on Examiner.co.uk for more.

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Students not mentioned once in consultation proposal

“In over 200 pages of consultation proposals not one mention was made about the university of 20,000 students that attend it. The CCG evidently haven’t considered how this change would affect young people, families or anyone that uses their services, they should consider quality of care not just the bottom line. “ - Alysia Ford, vice president Wellbeing and Equalities at University of Huddersfield Students’ Union

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Facebook fury

“I arrived just after 1 to attend the so called public consultation to find the meeting full and wasn’t allowed in ( was due to start at 1.30). The room capacity was only 100, did they really think so few people would be interested or was it a cynical move to prevent too much opposition I wonder?” - Katy Reiter

“‘Consultation’ is a funny word when it comes to things like this, sadly. It often means ‘we’ll ask your opinion, and we know what you’ll say, but we’ve pretty much decided what we’ll do, regardless’. I hope I’m wrong this time. “ - Verity Quarmby

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Strong words

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#HandsoffHRI

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Protest picture gallery

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What happens next?

Examiner health reporter Dave Himelfield explains:

The Right Care Right Time Place proposal is expected to be the subject of a public consultation which will last at least 12 weeks.

That means the public will have 12 weeks to lodge their comments and questions with Greater Huddersfield and Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), the local NHS organisations behind the plan.

The CCGs may decide to extend the length of the consultation if there is a high volume of responses.

It is expected that the consultation will begin next month.

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Residents react

“I find it difficult to understand how a decision to close our hospital is being made. We as a town have more than double the population and a wider area in geographic terms than Calderdale. Our demographic breakdown bears this out. In our hospital area is the M62 a well documented motorway for serious accidents.

The main road from Huddersfield to Calderdale hospital has to negotiate some extremely busy and in bad weather dangerous conditions. An ambulance carrying a dangerously ill patient will during the busy times struggle to meet its allotted time also from certain areas the golden hour for the optimum treatment will be long lost.

The A&E Department in Calderdale struggles today how will it cope with triple the number of patients. We in Huddersfield are being sacrificed for the poor deal Calderdale decided to sign to get a new hospital, this is common sense gone mad at the highest level.” — Carole Shields

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Kirklees Green Party calls for meeting

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They're definitely not running out of songs!

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Students stand firm

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We want your views

Did you go to the meeting or watch the livestream?

We want to know what you thought of today’s events and the decision to proceed to a public consultation - tweet us @Examiner, email SamanthaRobinson@trinitymirror.com or contact us on our Facebook page.

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The protest continues

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Campaigners vow to fight - #HandsoffHRI rally planned for Saturday

The Save Huddersfield A&E campaign is hosting a #HandsoffHRI rally on Saturday.

Campaigners will meet in St George’s Square, Huddersfield at 1pm.

The group said: “We need as many people to attend as possible, hopefully we will have local news coverage and bring our campaign this to the attention of people who have not got social media etc.”

We’ll be liveblogging Saturday’s rally.

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Consultation a foregone conclusion?

Tweet from HRI A&E meeting
Tweet from HRI A&E meeting
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Periscope feed ended - follow liveblog for updates

We’ve ended our Periscope feed now the meeting has ended.

But we’ll be running reaction, campaigners’ views and details and what’s going to happen next on this liveblog throughout the afternoon.

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Barry Sheerman's been following our Periscope feed

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And it's all over - Consultation is go

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'Shame'

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Panel ready to proceed to consultation on HRI closure/demolition plan

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This lot had a lot to say, anyway...

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Calls for more public questions to be answered

Questions from the public had to be submitted in advance - and they received too many to answer all of them verbally today.

Written answers will be sent, however.

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Chair: Doctors and nurses won't work in unsafe environments

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Public call for PFI default

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'PFI is usury'

To save you Googling it, like I had to - usury is ‘the action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest’

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Plan will have 'no negative impact on quality of care' says NHS manager - to audience jeers

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Plan will 'reduce funding gap'

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It's getting heated...

Confrontations between panel and public - raised voices, angry audience members are demanding answers.

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Voices not heard?

As one Periscope user said, “It’s a meeting in public not a public meeting.”

People are taking to social media to ask why more questions from residents aren’t being heard.

Students are also unhappy:

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