Dehenna Davison has said Covid meant she ‘took her foot off the gas’ in her campaign to get the accident and emergency department at Bishop Auckland Hospital reopened.

Reinstating the service was one of the former MP's key pledges on the election trail in 2019.

But almost five years on the casualty unit, which was closed in 2009, is no nearer being reopened.

Ms Davison, 30, said the pressures the NHS was facing during the global pandemic meant she was not as forthright as she should have been.

Former MP Dehenna Davison Former MP Dehenna Davison (Image: PA)

She said: “I could have been pushing the NHS further on it but what I did not want to do was get in the way of their operational stuff when they were already going through such a tough time.

“Perhaps that was a mistake on my part and perhaps I should have been a bit more bolshy on it but it was judgement call on what was the right thing to do while the local staff were already under a lot of pressure.

“It meant I probably took my foot off the gas on the campaign more than I should have because morally it didn’t feel right to be forcing a campaign like that on them when they were already under so much pressure.”

The A&E department in Bishop Auckland has been closed since 2009The A&E department in Bishop Auckland has been closed since 2009 (Image: Contributor)

Since the unit was closed residents have been forced to travel 12 miles to either Darlington Memorial Hospital or University Hospital Durham for emergency care.

The closure came after a clinical review into services at the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust found there was insufficient clinical staff and essential support services required to support the department at the hospital.

Months after Ms Davison became the Bishop Auckland MP, in spring 2020 NHS services were overwhelmed as the global coronavirus pandemic took hold.

Ms Davison, who announced she was stepping down before the forthcoming General Election was called,  said: “By the time that pressure had eased it felt like there was much less appetite for the trust to go down that route anyway so I do hope whoever becomes the MP on July 4 will really work with the trust to see what can be done to help the hospital reach its full potential because there is still a lot of local feeling that it is wrong that the services were removed.

“I stand by that campaign, I just wish that circumstances were different.

"There is a path to do if the trust and local people want to do it. I am not saying it is easy at all.

“But it is a conversation that is not over yet.”

Sam RushworthSam Rushworth (Image: Contributor)

During her campaign Ms Davison was criticised by Labour’s parliamentary candidate Sam Rushworth who accused her of staging photo opportunities but not putting any real effort into her election pledge.

Mr Rushworth rejected the idea the Covid pandemic was the reason has been unable to reopen the casualty department.

He said: “I wish Dehenna all of the best but what she is saying is not true.

“It was an undeliverable promise.

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“She made a promise that she could not deliver, without a very long term plan of how expand the NHS workforce, and that includes highly specialised roles that require more than your standard medical degree.”  

Mr Rushworth said, while the facility was closed under Labour, the NHS has suffered due to a lack of funding from Tory governments for 14 years.

He said the decision was made by the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust based on the availability of anaesthetists, surgeons and acute medicines specialists, which would need to be at one site to provide adequate emergency care.

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He said: “It would not be clinically safe to have an A&E at this moment.

“That is not to say we should accept the status quo. We should not accept Bishop Auckland Hospital being underutilised. We do need the urgent care centre.

“We do need better staffed wards and hospital to provide more outpatient services and step-down facilities but when it comes to that acute medical crisis you need specialists and at the moment there are not enough specialists in the NHS and you cannot train them in five minutes.”