CONDEMNATION has erupted in the wake of the meeting to decide health care in Huddersfield.
And there was a collective sense of anger and frustration, from all walks of life, flooding into the Examiner newsroom.
The leader of Kirklees Conservatives condemned the move which will see key services switch from the Royal Infirmary to the Calderdale Royal Hospital.
Prof Jim Thornton, who was author of the December 2005 report on maternity services by Doctors For Reform, said the decision was an "absolute outrage".
"The only winners from this merger will be those who wish to obstruct proper management in the NHS," he said.
"Instead of implementing real efficiency savings they have imposed a re-organisation."
He said this would provide the perfect "smoke screen" for them to carry on their wasteful ways.
He added: "I was invited by Kevin Holder to talk in detail with the trust and see if there were alternatives. I presented alternatives, but they rejected them."
He said the people of Huddersfield had been "over-ridden".
"Forty years ago the founders of the NHS strove to provide a full range of services for everyone and build a district general hospital in every town.
"Now their successors are closing them because the inefficiently managed NHS can't afford to keep them open.
"Huddersfield is now the largest town in Britain without a consultant-led maternity unit, it's probably the largest such town in western Europe.
"Doctors For Reform support midwife-led care and wish the new midwife-led unit well, but it could hardly have had a less propitious birth.
"Instead of being created by enthusiastic staff in response to popular demand... it's been created as a sop to the Huddersfield maternity closure." Clr Robert Light said: "I can't believe the Trust have ignored all the public objections and endorsed their proposals in full.
"The trust members have lost all the confidence of the Huddersfield public to run our hospital services - they have chosen to follow a Labour Government agenda at the expense of Huddersfield.
"No one will ever believe they are working in the best interests of the NHS in Huddersfield ever again."
Clr Tony Woodhead, a Liberal Democrat who represents the Lindley ward which includes the Infirmary, said: "I want to express my outrage. It's just a feeling of impotence and rage!"
He said so many people have written letters to the Examiner and to health chiefs, marched and petitioned and it had just been ignored.
"I'm surprised they didn't give anything," he added.
Pensioner Barbara Farrand, who was fighting for all services to be retained, vowed to fight on saying: "We may have lost the battle but we haven't lost the war."
She left the meeting at 11.30am after becoming angry. The meeting finally ended at 5pm.
"I left because it was a sham," she said.
"All the figures they were putting up were wrong. It wasn't the truth.
"I think they knew what was going to happen. I think it was decided years ago.
"That was just a charade they put on for us. Most of these people on the board don't even live in Huddersfield.
"The figures they were putting up were lies, they haven't counted petitions, they've given wrong petitions and they are traitors to Huddersfield because of money.
"They haven't consulted with us."
The Examiner has comprehensively reported the campaign to keep vital hospital services in Huddersfield.
Now the newspaper is stepping up into the front line.
We're planning to join local MPs Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield), Kali Mountford (Colne Valley) and Mary Creagh (Wakefield) in a deputation to see health secretary Patricia Hewitt.
The MPs - and the Examiner - want her to urgently review the controversial decisions taken this week by the Primary Care Trust Boards in Huddersfield, which sounded the death knell for services such as maternity and gynaecology in this town.
And the Examiner plans to be there with them in the heart of Westminster, armed with the backing of thousands of our readers.
We want you to sign our letter below and return it to us so that we can forward them on to Mrs Hewitt and let her know how strongly the people of this town feel about their hospital.
We are convinced the MPs have a case and deserve our support.
Services going in Huddersfield:
Planned general, gynaecological, orthopaedic and breast surgery will be moving from Huddersfield Royal Infirmary to Calderdale Royal Hospital.
In-patient services for children will be moving to Halifax.
All maternity services - except a midwife led unit - will be moving to Calderdale Royal Infirmary. This includes special care services for babies.
St Luke's Hospital at Crosland Moor will close. Patients needing low security mental health care will have to go to Fieldhead Hospital in Wakefield.
