SERIOUSLY ill patients will be transferred from an intensive care unit to hospitals several miles away because of a staff shortage, The Northern Echo has learnt.

The proposal, affecting patients at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, is contained within a leaked document and is expected to be discussed at a meeting of senior medical staff later today.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust, which manages the hospital, claims it has been unable to recruit enough doctors to provide 24-hour on-call emergency cover for the unit.

A draft working paper seen by The Northern Echo says level three ventilated patients - those requiring the most critical level of care - will, as a result, be no longer managed by the unit until further notice.

It also raises the issue of "clinical governance risks" in terms of the unit being adequately staffed to meet national guidelines.

Last night, Liz Twist, head of health for Unison in the North-East, said: "The key thing is that the hospital provides properly staffed intensive care and the trust ensures that staff and patients are reassured and demonstrates how they intend to address this problem.

"There is a concern about a 'drip-drip' effect that is happening at Bishop Auckland, coming on top of the many other changes that have already occurred."

Durham County Councillor John Shuttleworth, who represents Weardale, said: "There seems to have been a will from day one to run the hospital down and take away services from people in Bishop Auckland and the Dales who need it."

In a statement, medical director Bob Aitken said: "Over the summer, we advertised for doctors to provide on call cover for the critical care unit at Bishop Auckland.

"We were unable to attract enough staff with the right experience to fill these posts.

"Senior medical staff will meet this week to agree a way forward. This is likely to involve some critical care patients being transferred to Darlington Memorial and University Hospital of North Durham.

"This is in line with the principles in the trust's strategy of joint working between our hospitals to support the services available at each site. In agreeing our approach, the main concern will be to ensure patient safety."

A trust spokesman said the move was not about money and only involved small numbers of patients.

He said: "Arrangements already exist for moving patients between networks of intensive care units, so this is something that happens already."

Asked whether the unit could eventually be closed, he said: "That is not what this is about. It is about maintaining services to a high level at Bishop Auckland."