Question marks have been raised as to whether anything has been done about Kirklees Council's £300m hospital proposal.

ExaminerLive has learnt that none of the senior councillors involved in the high profile launch of the plan are aware of any progress on the ambitious plan since it was unveiled last August.

With hospital chiefs pushing ahead with their own plan, we asked if the plan had been dropped.

We were told the proposal to retain A&E care for the borough was still alive but when we asked what work had taken place or what could still be achieved, the council refused to co-operate.

Three of the four opposition party leaders involved in the high profile cross-party launch last year, confirmed to ExaminerLive that they had been given no updates on the proposal in the past 11 months. 

Independent group leader, Clr Charles Greaves, said the £196m funding secured by the hospitals last December essentially left theirs "dead in the water".

"It was always a case of trying to sell it to the CCG," he said. "But since it was launched we've not had any feedback on it.

"I think lots has been done behind the scenes, but in public we've heard nothing.

"I don't get the secret squirrel approach, people want to know what's happened."

Are the £300m plans for Huddersfield and Dewsbury hospital still realistic?
Are the £300m plans for Huddersfield and Dewsbury hospital still realistic?

Green Party leader, Clr Andrew Cooper, said: "I'm not aware of any progress, but the style of this cabinet now is to keep everyone in the dark about things.  They're quite secretive.

"This issue is really important to the people of Huddersfield, it's probably one of the two biggest issues for the whole area.

"There needs to be a dialogue with people and we need to know if the issue is being pushed by the council.

"I would like to know if meetings have been requested with health ministers, what actions have been taken to meet health officials, who's leading on it and what actions have been taken to progress it and to push it higher up the political agenda of government?

"If they haven't made progress it really is a concern."

Lib Dem leader, Clr John Lawson, confirmed he had heard nothing either.

"Nobody knows what's going on," he said.

"We were always of a mind that our proposal was serious."

Responding to the council's refusal to update ExaminerLive, he said: "That is concerning.

"Now we don't know if there's nothing to report or if we're just not being told.

"For us it's in limbo - whether it's still an alternative, I don't know."

Has any work taken place in here on the council's £300m hospital plan?
Has any work taken place in here on the council's £300m hospital plan?

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust's revised plan has been granted almost £200m in funding and its latest formal document being submitted to the NHS reveals it hasn't altered its plan to focus emergency care in Halifax.

Just £20m of the cash injection is going towards improvements at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, with the remainder directed towards increasing capacity at Calderdale Royal.

Kirklees Council's plan says the borough should have its own A&E and health bosses should consider the area as a whole rather than just reviewing the estates and clinical capacity for individual hospital trusts.

While Huddersfield and Dewsbury will have 24 hour A&Es, neither will be the first port of call for Kirklees residents taken ill by paramedics. All 'blue light' calls will go to Halifax, Leeds or Wakefield.

In the hospital trust's so-called Strategic Outline Case is, which is being submitted to NHS England in the next few weeks, Kirklees Council comments: "The Council considers that there is scope for operational and financial efficiency if the two acute providers that serve Kirklees were to collaborate and work together to re-configure services within Kirklees.

"This process should be supported by a single plan for Kirklees rather than individual organisations planning in isolation from each other."

The council's £300m plan to retain "full fat" A&E and acute care  suggested a new hospital for Kirklees should be built, possibly somewhere in between the two major towns of Huddersfield and Dewsbury.

At the time, Council leader Clr Shabir Pandor said: “It is vital that the growing population in Kirklees has its health and social care needs properly reflected and planned for.

"The (hospital's) original proposals were all about structure, rather than plans designed for people.

“We can’t afford to allow the haemorrhaging of services from both Dewsbury and Huddersfield hospitals as is happening now."

ExaminerLive asked Clr Pandor to update us on what progress had been made but he declined to comment.