HOSPITAL officials have agreed to purchase hundreds of extra operations in the private sector, despite a possible £2m overspend.

Managers at South Durham Health Care NHS Trust are going ahead with plans to commission 423 operations at private hospitals in the region, despite warnings that action is needed to avoid it plunging £2m into the red.

Officials at the trust, which runs Darlington Memorial Hospital and Bishop Auckland General Hospital, are drawing up plans to avoid going into deficit at the end of the financial year.

The Department of Health is insisting that all acute hospital trusts avoid a deficit by April 1, when the new primary care trusts and strategic health authorities go "live". Much of the savings will depend on the adoption of proposals drawn up by Professor Ara Darzi, which are aimed at encouraging greater integration among County Durham hospitals.

Trust officials hope that the shake-up in services will lead to significant economies.

The cost of the extra private sector operations is being partly offset by an allocation of £250,000 from the Regional Office Performance Fund, which recognises the progress made by the South Durham trust in reducing outpatient waiting times.

The trust exceeded its target of reducing the number of people waiting more than 13 weeks to 676, slashing the figure to 442.

A trust spokesman said the reduction was "an excellent out-turn for the trust".

The trust is likely to get more money if the number of people waiting longer than 13 weeks for an outpatients' appointment falls again by March 31. Much of the improvement is due to changes in the way patients are processed and services are delivered.

Officials also hope they can persuade the new strategic health authority to allow a transfer of £500,000 from capital to revenue.

But economies resulting from the Darzi plan are also vital.

"The savings required will be achieved through the rationalisation of clinical services between the trust's two acute hospitals through the implementation of the proposals contained in the service review," a trust spokesman said.

The hospital trust and South Durham Primary Care Trusts are committed to implementing these proposals to achieve the long-term sustainability of services, he said