THE recently-merged County Durham and Darlington NHS Hospitals Trust has decided not to apply for the Government's much-vaunted foundation status.

Instead it will concentrate on the complexities of delivering services to one of the largest split hospital sites in the country.

Foundation status is available to highly-rated hospitals in Government league tables and would give hospital managers greater freedom on working practices, pay, recruitment and governance.

In the North-East, only North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust has so far expressed interest.

In January, former Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, warned that foundation hospitals would create a two-tier NHS and lead to increasing influence for the private sector.

But his successor, Darlington MP Alan Milburn, has said the proposals would devolve power and give hospital managers more freedom over decision-making, unleashing innovation.

County Durham's split site trust, which includes Darlington Memorial and Bishop Auckland General hospitals and the University Hospital of North Durham, would have been eligible.

John Saxby, chief executive, told the D&S Times: "We have discussed this and decided we will not be submitting an application.

"We are concentrating on consolidating the merger of two large NHS trusts.

"Our principle activity over the coming 12 to 18 months has to be building on access, choice and sustainability, particularly around the clinical services at Bishop Auckland."

He added: "We know from our previous experience of the merger of the Darlington and Bishop Auckland hospital trusts that it takes two or three years to do this."