Dr Maria Wybrew of the CCG board has responded to concerns over the planned closure of Huddersfield’s A&E.

The Huddersfield GP who lives in Slaithwaite spoke to residents at the first Right Care, Right Time, Right Place public consultation in Slaithwaite, some of whom were particularly concerned about the distance to Calderdale Royal.

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She said: “You get a better outcome if you go to a better centre.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is that patients already travel far further than Halifax for treatment.

“If you call 999 your treatment starts from minute you get in that ambulance.

“If the paramedics decide you’re having a heart attack you will go straight to Leeds because that is your best chance of cure and outcome.

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“For the sake of an extra five or ten minutes to get the correct treatment you’re going to save lives and people are going to have better outcomes.”

She insisted that people would be listened to at the 15 consultations.

“What they say will have a big impact; we’re recording questions.

“If people come up with pertinent questions that we haven’t considered we will consider those.

“We are open to dialogue and change but we have to got to be able to sustain that change and we’ve got to be able to afford that change.

“There’s not an alternative to the plans we’ve set out so far but we hope that the public will come up with one.”