HUNDREDS of patients were thrown a lifeline yesterday after a GP practice agreed to stay open.

The Medical Group had written to 950 patients in Lanchester, near Durham, warning them that its Westlands surgery in the village was to close, due to a shortage of doctors.

But at a meeting of Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust (PCT) yesterday, health bosses and practice manager Mike O'Hare agreed a short-term package to help keep it operating.

A public meeting will be held in the village later this month to further discuss the problem. In the meantime, the surgery will stay open.

The practice had planned to close because it has lost two part-time Spanish GPs, part of a wave of Spanish medics imported by North-East health bosses last year.

The trust is helping out by sending the practice a nursing practitioner and a first contact practitioner for emergency care.

But PCT chief executive Andrew Young conceded that the surgery, one of three in the village, may still close. One option is to ask two new, full-time doctors to take on the extra patients when they arrive in October.

But the new staff are working at a different practice in the village, that falls under the jurisdiction of Derwentside PCT. No one from the Medical Group was available for comment.