PATIENTS with serious head injuries cannot be treated in the casualty department of a Government showpiece hospital.

Modern care standards demand that head injury patients should be cared for by accident and emergency doctors.

But a shortage of casualty nurses at the University Hospital of North Durham means that patients are admitted to orthopaedic wards normally reserved for patients recovering from hip and joint operations.

Bosses at the £97m privately- financed NHS hospital stress that the patients remain under the care of accident and emergency doctors. Royal College of Surgeons guidelines mean that orthopaedic doctors are not allowed to treat them.

The latest revelation will come as another blow to the hospital, which has been dogged by controversy since it opened.

Earlier this year, doctors who run the Durham accident and emergency unit complained that it would be unsafe to care for head injury patients in their short stay ward without more nurses.

However, trust bosses have said that the extra five nurses needed to staff the unit fully could not be appointed until April next year.

The concerns of doctors are reflected in a report due to be discussed at the North Durham Health Care NHS Trust board meeting today.

In the report, which was written in January, a senior consultant said: "The current management of intermediate head injuries is unsatisfactory in this hospital at the present time."

The report estimates that at least five extra nurses would be needed to "keep these patients safely in the A and E short stay ward".

A spokesman for the North Durham Trust said the issue of who was responsible for treating patients had been raised by accident and emergency staff in January and the problem had been resolved.

"The patients remain under the care of A and E medical staff," he said.

Seven extra nurses and two doctors recently joined the unit and it is hoped a third consultant will be appointed next month.