A COUNCIL leader has warned NHS bosses that any further transfer of services away from its town’s hospital could lead to people voting with their feet.

Councillor Bill Dixon, of Darlington Borough Council, was speaking after a decision by NHS County Durham and Darlington to concentrate hyperacute stroke services at the University Hospital of North Durham.

The move will mean the closure of the hyperacute stroke service at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

The decision by primary care trust board members was taken despite strong opposition from Darlington council, which argued that the single hyperacute stroke service should be based at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Coun Dixon said if any more services were transferred to the Durham City site, people in Darlington might “vote with their feet” and ask their GPs to refer them to The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, for treatment.

“They need to think about this. They can’t assume that the people of Darlington are a captive audience. They need to be very aware that their customers are far more savvy than they seem to be giving them credit for,” said Coun Dixon.

“People will look at what services are moved to Durham and think, ‘Can I get that at James Cook?’,” he added.

On Tuesday, the board of NHS County Durham backed proposals to close the Darlington unit and centralise hyperacute stroke services to Durham City. They endorsed a report that concluded the University Hospital of North Durham was better placed and better equipped to be the preferred site for the unit.

Hospital bosses had warned that a shortage of stroke specialists meant that a two-site service could not be safely maintained.

One of the crucial deciding factors was an analysis of patient travel times which suggested that the average journey to the Durham site for stroke patients was slightly quicker than the journey to Darlington.

Last night, Coun Dixon confirmed that he had asked the councils lawyers to take a close look at the patient movement statistics used by the primary care trust (PCT).

At the meeting Dr Mike Lavender, chairman of the PCT’s stroke strategy implementation group, assured board members that the analysis based on the patient movement statistics was “sound”.

Hospital officials said the changes should lead to lives being saved.