MERGER plans have been announced that will result in a single health trust running County Durham hospitals.

As part of the wide-ranging proposals Bishop Auckland General Hospital would have an important new role as the main County Durham centre for planned operations, such as hip and knee replacements, urology and general surgery.

But the plan will mean the £67m new hospital will be stripped of its Special Care Baby Unit and paediatric department and many patients may have to travel to Durham or Darlington for more advanced treatment.

The consultant-led 24 hour maternity unit would also be downgraded to a 9am-9pm midwife-led unit for uncomplicated births. Potentially difficult obstetric cases would be sent to Darlington Memorial Hospital.

The radical blueprint drawn up by Professor Ara Darzi is designed to ease pressure on the University Hospital of North Durham by encouraging closer working relationships between hospitals in the North and South of the county.

It is also intended to ensure that the new Bishop Auckland hospital, due to open this summer, is fully utilised.

Since it opened last year the new privately financed Durham hospital has struggled to cope with demand.

Critics, including Kevan Jones MP and the public services union Unison, have argued that the Durham hospital was built with too few beds.

There have also been allegations that the new £67m privately financed Bishop Auckland General Hospital, due to open in the Spring, is a 'white elephant' and the resources should have been ploughed into Durham and Darlington hospitals.

Stephen Mason , chief executive of the 492-bed Durham hospital, said he believed an extension to the new hospital was probably still needed to cope with the demand.

Prof Darzi, the Department of Health's advisor on surgery and a member of Health Secretary Alan Milburn's modernisation board, spent eight weeks talking to health bosses and doctors before drawing up his blueprint.

The professor said the relatively small catchment areas of each hospital meant that greater co-operation was the only way forward.

While some patients would have to travel further it would lead to an improved range of higher quality services, he said.

The plan also calls for the setting up of a new vascular surgery service based at the Durham hospital.

Ken Jarrold, chief executive of County Durham and Darlinton Health Authority, stressed that any major changes would be subject to a full public consultation.

"I would hope that we could begin the consultation process by the summer," he said.