SCORES of people joined a protest outside Poole’s Civic Centre on Monday ahead of a lively meeting about plans to downgrade the town’s A&E and maternity services.

Objectors who participated in the Defend Dorset NHS protest say Poole councillors need to back the scheme’s referral to the secretary of state on the grounds that the transfer of A&E services would be harmful to residents.

Members of the public, councillors and medical professionals are currently debating the point at the meeting of the council’s people overview and scrutiny committee for health and social care.

Ahead of the meeting, campaigner Debby Monkhouse said: “It’s really important that Poole council stands up for Poole residents.

“This is their local hospital. It’s absolutely ridiculous if they don’t. What kind of body are they if they don’t stand up for their own people?”

Councillor Mark Howell claimed during the meeting that Dorset’s clinical commissioning group (CCG) had “misrepresented” likely travel times between the two hospitals.

This was countered by representatives from the South Western Ambulance Service, who say there will be a 60-second increase in journey time on average for adult patients, and a reduction of a minute on average for paediatric patients.

Tom Goodson, chief officer of the CCG, railed against objectors’ “speculation”.

“I encourage you all to listen and ask questions of the clinicians in the room tonight. These are the real experts - everyone else is a commentator,” he said.

Claims of “hundreds of deaths” under the scheme “are simply not supported by facts”, he said.

He was jeered by the crowd as he asked: “Do you really think we would do this if we didn’t believe it was the right thing to do, or that it was going to harm patients?

“That is the very opposite of what the NHS exists for.”

Debbie Fleming, the chief executive of Poole Hospital, also gave a presentation.

“We want, and we need, to be bigger in order to serve our residents well,” she said.

“We are creating a positive future. People are getting excited because we can make it better for our patients.”

If the scheme goes ahead, according to the CCG, Poole will become the ‘major planned care’ hospital, taking a high volume of routine inpatient and day-case elective surgery.

There will also be more theatres in the hospital and a range of outpatient, diagnostic and therapeutic services.

Bournemouth will become the ‘major emergency hospital’ offering, the CCG says, a 24/7 consultant-delivered A&E.