AN improved pay offer has led to the suspension of a strike at Health Secretary Alan Milburn's local hospitals.

Eighty-five medical secretaries employed by South Durham Health Care Trust at Bishop Auckland and Darlington had been due to walk out for four days next week.

But elsewhere in the region, 60 medical secretaries will be on picket lines outside South Shields General Hospital as staff at South Tyneside Health Care Trust join a four-day strike over pay.

Another 140 medical secretaries, who work at Sunderland Royal Hospital and Sunderland Eye Infirmary, are continuing their strike for more pay which began five weeks ago.

Medical secretaries in the region, who earn a maximum of £12,815, have surprised management with their militancy. They are angry that they are paid substantially less than colleagues at hospitals in Scotland and the South of England for the same job.

A new pay offer by South Durham management, made on Wednesday night, means that the strike has been suspended pending the outcome of a ballot.

Secretaries at Darlington Memorial Hospital and Bishop Auckland General Hospital will vote on whether to accept increases of between £450 and £1,000 depending on seniority.

If the South Durham secretaries settle, they will follow the example of colleagues at Northumbria Health Care Trust, North Shields, who accepted an improved offer after a strike threat.

Liz Twist, for the Unison union, said: "We are very pleased that the South Durham Trust have been prepared to make a realistic offer to their medical secretaries, which values the important work they do. We will be consulting our members over the next few days and have suspended the strike action."

Unison is planning to ballot medical secretaries at the Newcastle Hospitals Trust within the next few weeks.