THE death of a woman patient during a routine operation at a North-East trust has sparked a nationwide health alert.

Health officials at South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust last night confirmed that an internal inquiry had been launched into the death of the patient.

And as a result, the Government has been forced to halt all tonsil and adenoid surgery which involves new disposable equipment.

Disposable forceps, introduced earlier this year, are used to seal wounds by using heat treatment rather than stitches.

Six weeks ago, official safety warnings were circulated about the new forceps, which led to adjustments to their manufacture.

This led to a fall in the number of reported problems, which usually involved post-operative bleeding.

It took the death of the patient on Teesside to trigger a nationwide ban on the use of the new electrosurgical diathermy forceps.

There have been 18 other reported "adverse incidents" involving the new single-use equipment, brought in reduce the possibility of patients being contaminated with new variant CJD.

Last night, Peter Johnson, chief officer of South Tees Community Health Council, said a possible increased risk of post-operative bleeding had to be balanced against the risk of contracting vCJD through contaminated instruments.

Professor Ian Haslock, the trust's medical director, said the death of the patient was "extremely distressing for all concerned."

He said the problem was a nationwide issue which was being addressed by the Department of Health.

"It is known that one of the hazards of tonsilectomy is post-operative bleeding. It is not unusual," he added.

Earlier this year, thousands of tonsil operations were put on hold because hospitals had to be supplied with the new disposable equipment to address the vCJD risk.