HEALTH bosses have confirmed that a major hospital will not be downgraded.

The news has calmed immediate fears that managers were drawing up plans to move maternity and children’s services from Darlington Memorial Hospital to The University Hospital of North Durham, in Durham City.

The concerns surround doubts that County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust could attract and retain enough specialist medical staff to run both units on a 24-hour basis, while meeting the training needs of medical students.

A move would have left a town of more than 100,000 people reliant on a hospital 23 miles away.

Darlington MP Jenny Chapman was so concerned she wrote to trust chief executive Stephen Eames urging him to keep women and children’s services in the town.

Dr Ahmed Ali, the former head of women and children’s services at the trust, added his voice to concerns, vowing to fight any move to centralise the trust’s services at Durham. Last night, after a meeting attended by senior doctors, midwives and managers, officials at the trust said agreement had been reached that women and children’s services would remain at Darlington and Durham City for at least three years.

Officials said there was agreement that the trust was well enough resourced to deliver current service and training requirements at both sites.

The meeting also agreed that a single-site option would not meet the current needs of patients and NHS commissioners.

Mr Eames told staff: “There are workforce pressures down the line, but our current configuration of two consultantled maternity units is sustainable for the medium term.

“We plan to explore, with our clinicians, with primary care trusts and GP commissioners and with patient representatives how we can maintain this configuration for the long term.”

Mrs Chapman said: “I welcome this statement.

“Obviously they have listened to the very clear view expressed from Darlington that we have to keep our women and children’s services at the memorial hospital.”