THREE beds will be lost at Northallerton's Friarage Hospital as part of a ward reorganisation, but managers say the change will prove more efficient.

Four wards at the Friarage are to be merged into three as part of a reshuffle of the medicine and orthopaedic wards.

Neil Permain, director of operational services for South Tees NHS Trust, said the change would allow the hospital to have three wards fully staffed by nurses, rather than four under-staffed wards.

"The four medical wards we have are too small to make the best use of our nursing resources," he said. "Following the move we will be able to maintain these levels of staffed beds much more often than we have been recently.

"We will have more beds per ward and this makes better use of available staff. Running these wards efficiently means there will be no reduction in the numbers of patients we can admit or the standard of care offered."

In orthopaedics, the trust is changing the way that the two wards are run. Instead of both taking the same type of patients, one will take shorter-stay patients and the other will take those who are in for longer. The first ward will be closed at weekends.

Mr Permain said: "Again it makes sense to have staff working at times where there is most need and this move makes the best use of the staff and facilities available. Staff in these wards have been consulted throughout this process. In fact staff were instrumental in this because they made suggestions about how the wards could be run more safely and efficiently."