HEALTH chiefs came under renewed fire yesterday over plans to close a North-East hospital unit for cancer sufferers.

The in-patient haematology unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital was opened in the late 1980s after campaigners raised almost £300,000.

But proposals to shut the six-bed ward 42 and merge it with another unit at Bishop Auckland General Hospital have attracted fierce condemnation.

And bosses were left in no doubt as to the strength of feeling among the original fundraisers after a meeting at Darlington town hall yesterday.

John Saxby, chief executive of County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, praised the local campaigners for their "amazing will and commitment" in raising the money.

He also told Darlington Borough Council's social affairs and health scrutiny committee that there had been much internal debate about the best location for a centralised service.

But Mr Saxby faced criticism from former BBC Radio Cleveland broadcaster Allene Norris, who raised £10,000 for the fund after her husband, David, died of leukaemia.

She said the original fund-raisers should have been one of the first groups consulted "as a matter of courtesy".

"To hear out of the blue that this was being considered, I think was an awful cheek," she said.

"The fact that there has been no consultation beforehand leaves a very sour taste in the mouth.

"It sends a message to the people of this town - why should they bother fundraising for their local hospital?"

Dr John Hardman, who provides oncology services at the memorial hospital, also voiced his disapproval at the planned closure.

He said Darlington was in the strongest geographic position to provide services to Wensleydale and Swaledale, as well as South Durham.

Dr Hardman said: "Although out-patient chemotherapy will be offered on both sites, ill patients from Darlington Memorial Hospital will either be transferred to the Bishop Auckland haematology service - and I will lose touch with them at that critical point - or admitted to Darlington as a general admission.

"No disrespect is intended to the general physicians, but it is unlikely that acute care will be as satisfactory as it is on ward 42."

Dr Hardman added that, should the relocation go ahead "for reasons of short-term managerial or financial expediency", it would have to be reversed in future.

However, Mr Saxby denied that the proposals were financially-driven.

He said: "There is no disagreement on the clinical side that there has to be centralisation.

"It is not anything driven by financial issues."

He said that no final decision had yet been taken.

The scrutiny committee agreed that the trust should undertake more consultation on the matter.