FOUR more North-East hospitals have moved closer to becoming foundation hospitals.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust and City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust are already in line to win foundation status next April, with the right to borrow extra cash and set different pay rates.

Now it has been confirmed that a further four North-East trusts, South Tyneside, Gates-head, Harrogate and York, are among a second wave of foundation trusts.

After winning last week's House of Commons vote by a narrow margin, the Government is pressing ahead with the policy, despite widespread opposition among Labour MPs and health service trade union Unison.

Liz Twist, Unison's North-East regional officer, predicted that the two-tier system would be disastrous for those hospitals that did not have foundation status, encouraging staff to move to improve pay rates, making staff shortages at some hospitals worse.

The region's biggest hospital, the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, was one of the three-star hospitals to be demoted to two-stars in the last assessment round, barring the large hospital group from consideration for trust status for at least another year.