A SERIES of six public meetings are to be held to discuss controversial plans to merge hospital trusts in County Durham.

The meetings, between May 1 and May 27, form part of public consultation into the plans drawn up by Professor Ara Darzi.

His recommendations, which were published in February, are partly designed to overcome capacity problems at the new £97m University Hospital of North Durham (UHND).

The privately-financed NHS hospital was built with fewer beds than the old Dryburn Hospital it was built to replace.

Concerns about the shortage of beds at the new hospital led to Prof Darzi, a top London surgeon, being called in.

Prof Darzi came up with radical plans to merge the South Durham and North Durham hospital trusts and integrate the work of all three acute hospitals in County Durham.

His plan involves making the new £67m Bishop Auckland hospital the main treatment centre for non-urgent surgery.

It is hoped that if more planned surgery can be carried out at Bishop Auckland it will ease pressure on the Durham hospital.

Other proposals include developing vascular surgery and a new diagnostic angiography service led by UHND.

There are also plans to move some maternity, gynaecology and child health services, including the special care baby unit, from Bishop Auckland to Darlington.

Prof Darzi's plan was discussed at yesterday's first meeting of the new County Durham and Tees Valley Health Authority.

All public meetings start at 7pm.

The venues are: Spennymoor Town Hall (May 1), Darlington Dolphin Centre (May 13), Consettt Civic Hall (May 15), Bishop Auckland Masonic Hall (May 16), Durham Collingwood College (May 20) and Haswell Village Meeting Room (May 27).

Copies of the consultation document will be available on the www.durham.ha.northy.nhs.uk website.