He went to the ageing cottage hospital and spoke to staff and patients about plans to replace it with a new building in the town centre, while in-patient and stroke rehabilitation beds will be transferred to Wansbeck District Hospital.

The majority of residents supported the plans at two public meetings and Mr Clegg believes this is a good example of how the NHS should operate.

"I was particularly pleased to see how the community here has come together to decide on the future of the cottage hospital," he said.

"I spent a long time talking to staff and patients and they were all in favour of moving to a town centre site as it will be much easier to get to by public transport.

"This is a great example of what can happen when decisions are taken at a local level after consultation and public meetings, as one of the main failings with how the NHS is run is that people in Westminster are making decisions for areas that they have little knowledge of."

He was hopeful of his party being successful at the forthcoming elections for the new unitary authority for Northumberland and slammed the Labour controlled county council for being too distracted about it.

Mr Clegg said: "There have been cuts in services in Northumberland, adult social care in particular, that have been wholly unacceptable.

"It hasn't been helped by the decision to move to a unitary authority as Labour councillors have been fighting among themselves like rats in a bag about it and are ignoring the key issues."

He also took part in a question and answer session at Morpeth Town Hall and spoke about his personal and party's views on a range of issues.

This included defending his decision to ask his party members to abstain on the vote about a referendum on an EU treaty recently signed in Lisbon.

He said it was "a false choice" as it would not change how the EU operates and the Conservatives had made it seem more important than it actually is.