BASILDON Hospital will struggle to cope with demand if it is made a specialist emergency centre for the area, campaigners told a protest meeting.

Crowds gathered at The Place, in Northlands Pavement, Pitsea, to have their say on plans to downgrade two out of three A&E departments.

Proposals put forward by the Mid and South Essex Success Regime suggest that Basildon Hospital will become a specialist emergency centre. Southend and Broomfield, in Chelmsford, would be downgraded to take less serious cases.

Fears have been raised by critics that the changes would mean longer journeys to hospital for patients with serious injuries as ambulances are re-routed to A&E via the often gridlocked A127 and A13.

The protest meeting, held on Tuesday evening, was organised by the Basildon and Thurrock Trades Council.

Local health blogger Nick Bradley, who has represented hospital staff as a union officer, spoke out about his concerns.

He said: “If Basildon didn’t have enough beds when it was one of three A&Es, then where is it going to get all these extra beds from for all of these new patients coming in?

“The East of England ambulance service is under enough pressure already. They are struggling to meet response times.

“It doesn’t take a genius to work out then when someone in Braintree needs to be taken to hospital by ambulance, then that ambulance will come from Braintree and come all the way to Basildon.

“The ambulance that is based up there will have to come to Basildon and will have to take time to get back up to that area.

“That is a disaster waiting to happen.

“If those services are downgraded then specialist doctors and nurses will not want to work in those hospitals, which means that they will not be able to properly staff those hospitals.”

Dave Murray, president of the Trades Council, who organised the meeting, said the campaign group hope to host a protest rally in Basildon’s town centre in coming weeks.

Last month,more than 1,000 people joined a rally in Southend High Street to protest against the proposals.

The planned downgrade is part of a scheme to address a £450million budget shortfall.