FEARS are growing that NHS urgent care centres at three County Durham towns are earmarked for closure.

Twenty-five paramedics who work at the urgent care centres in Bishop Auckland, Peterlee and Seaham have been told that they could be made redundant as part of a shake-up of urgent and emergency care services in County Durham and Darlington.

Plans being drawn up by Clinical Commissioning Groups in the area include an option for the current UGCs at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, Peterlee and Seaham to be closed.

The plans for Bishop Auckland, which lost its own A&E department five years ago in October 2009, have been strongly criticised by the town’s MP Helen Goodman.

Mrs Goodman told The Northern Echo: “It is absolutely vital to maintain the urgent care centre in Bishop Auckland as a service available to the public at nights and at weekends. I hope very much that any decisions will keep the needs of patients at the forefront .”

The long-term aim of the changes is to reshape urgent and emergency care services in County Durham and Darlington to relieve pressure on hard-pressed A&E departments and to avoid confusion in the public’s mind about where they need to go to get help.

An NHS planning group known as the County Durham and Darlington Systems Resilience Group would like to see a simplified pyramid model, meaning urgent care would only be provided in dedicated centres operating alongside A&E departments at the University Hospital of North Durham and Darlington Memorial Hospital.

A critical part of the plan is to expand capacity by opening GP surgeries seven days a week and drafting in paramedics to help them.

The overall aim of the strategy is “to improve appropriate access at each level of care, ensuring that people are seen in the right place, right time, first time”.

Over time, the planning group expect this will increase the use of GPs, pharmacy, 111 (the NHS advice helpline) and reduce urgent care activity in A&E departments.

Trevor Johnston, North-East regional head of health for Unison, said: “This seems madness to us. It looks as if it is all about saving money and it will put more pressure on hospitals.

"GPs are not going to agree to working 24/7. They are already overworked and don’t have the resources to cope . Where are they going to get the money to employ all these extra GPs that will be needed?”

A spokeswoman for NHS North Durham CCG and Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield CCG said: “The aim of the Urgent and Emergency Care Strategy is to address the growing demand on A&E services.

"Despite the introduction of urgent care services in County Durham A&E attendances have never decreased despite this being the intention of putting those services in place. We would not want to implement any alternative services that would increase demand on A&E.

“The CCG has not made any decision to close the centres. There are no plans in place by the CCG to make any staff redundant. In the case of any future changes to urgent care services we would want to ensure that skilled staff were not lost to the local NHS but that they remain in local health service delivery.”

“If any significant service change is proposed we would be required to undertake a public consultation exercise.”