COUNCILLORS will decide next week whether a new hospital unit to treat heart patients will be built in Darlington.

If planning permission is granted for the extension at Darlington Memorial Hospital, it is expected to reduce the amount of time patients with heart disease have to wait for an appointment and the distance they have to travel for treatment.

Patients in the Darlington and South Durham areas who have suspected coronary disease, have to travel to the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, for angiographs.

But the South Durham Health Care NHS Trust, which runs Darlington Memorial Hospital, wants to build a single-storey angiography unit at the hospital, in Hollyhurst Road.

Last year, the South Durham Health Care trust bid successfully for £800,000 of National Lottery funding to buy angiography equipment, which is used by doctors to detect blocked arteries in patients with suspected coronary disease.

The new equipment would be housed in the unit, which managers at the trust hope will be in operation by April next year.

If councillors follow recommendations and support the plans for the new unit at a meeting on Monday, it is expected that building work would start soon