A NORTH-EAST secure unit for dangerous psychiatric patients is facing closure - prompting fears about the transportation of patients considered a risk to the public.

The Northern Echo has learned NHS officials are considering a plan to close the intensive care ward in Durham City - one of only a handful of secure units treating potentially dangerous patients.

If the scheme goes ahead, staff and patients will be transferred to a new £20m mental health hospital at West Park, in Darlington.

But staff claim the closure will only exacerbate existing problems over the transportation of patients.

Currently, the County Hospital in Durham and Darlington's Memorial Hospital both contain secure units where patients with serious psychiatric problems are treated.

The Tony White unit at the County is a five bed high security ward with a seclusion area for violent patients and is the only independent secure ward in County Durham.

A similar facility exists at Darlington Memorial Hospital but it will be replaced by the West Park hospital in November.

Staff who contacted The Northern Echo claim that in one recent case a disturbed patient, who had attempted to strangle a nurse, had to be taken by taxi when paramedics refused to move her without a police escort.

The Darlington woman, who is in her 40s, was so disturbed nurses had to give her a high dose sedative and restrain her.

Paramedics refused to handle the patient because they did not have a police escort and were concerned for their own safety and medical equipment.

A source said: "The patient had already tried to run away. Something could have happened."

Another source confirmed the incident and said the patient had to be drugged and accompanied in the taxi by two members of staff.

Documents obtained by The Northern Echo reveal the patient has made an official complaint.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Priority Services Trust said it had clearly laid out guidelines on the transportation of patients. These included a risk assessment being carried out by a consultant to determine how the patient would be moved, and it could involve police, ambulances or taxis.

The spokeswoman said: "No concerns were voiced by staff at the time. However we will be examining this case again now the matter had been brought to our attention.

"We would not transfer anyone unless we were satisfied of any risk they posed."

However, The Northern Echo has discovered that last month police twice refused to help move patients because they were considered too much of a risk.

Staff also highlighted another incident of an aggressive patient, who had previously attacked a woman in Durham City, and had to be restrained at the County Hospital by six members of staff.

They say if the unit is closed, other nurses at the hospital would not be able to cope without the use of a seclusion unit to house violent patients who are too ill to be transferred.

The source said: "How are they going to get people like this on a journey of 25 miles, if the ward closes down and police are unable to transport them? You can't drug them and put them in a taxi."

Officials at Unison and the Royal College of Nursing confirmed they had been alerted to staff fears.

Peter Johnson, Unison branch secretary at the trust, said: "Members have raised concerns, mainly about the distance these patients will have to travel to Darlington and concerns over patient welfare."

Plans were unveiled in February for a new treatment centre in north Durham which would replace the County Hospital in a few years time. But staff believe the possible interim measure of moving to Darlington would help ease staffing difficulties, an allegation denied by the trust.