FORMER Health Secretary Alan Milburn has handed over more than 600 protest letters to NHS officials as part of a campaign to save his local primary care trust.

Mr Milburn passed the thick bundle of letters to David Flory, chief executive of County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority in his constituency office in Darlington.

Faced with the abolition of Darlington Primary Care Trust (PCT) as part of a radical shake-up of the NHS in the North-East, Mr Milburn wrote to 1,000 of his constituents, urging them to support an option which would allow more PCTs to survive a reshuffle.

They responded in their hundreds and yesterday Mr Milburn said: "I very much hope that the weight of local opinion is reflected in the final outcome. This represents a genuine groundswell of local opinion. The case for preserving Darlington PCT is overwhelming."

The MP said it made more sense to allow local people to control Darlington's NHS and social services departments.

Under the first option of the proposals, a single PCT would be created for the whole of County Durham and Darlington.

Mr Flory said there had been a very high level of interest in the proposals in Darlington.

Mr Flory said he believed the first option - which will lead to the "patchwork quilt" of PCTs being replaced - is better suited to the Government's plans to save costs and give more power to GPs.

Mr Milburn's concerns are echoed by other North-East MPs, including Easington's John Cummings and Hartlepool's Iain Wright.