HOSPITAL operations may be disrupted across the region after medical secretaries voted overwhelmingly to strike over improved pay.

Union officials have made an appeal to Health Secretary Alan Milburn to head off the strike at his local hospital after staff in Darlington and Bishop Auckland voted unanimously in favour of action.

Gillian Powell, regional officer for health trade union Unison, said: "I suggest Alan Milburn asks the management of the trust to sort it out."

Medical secretaries are in revolt over pay scales which mean they earn as little as £12,800.

The 96.4 per cent vote in favour of strike action was taken by 85 medical secretaries at Darlington Memorial and Bishop Auckland General hospitals.

Fears have been expressed that the strike could disrupt care and possibly cancel operations.

A consultant at South Durham health trust has written to the chief executive, John Saxby, warning that such a strike could lead to clinics being cancelled.

Another 60 medical secretaries at the South Tyneside trust have voted for strike action by an almost identical margin.

It means that the North-East is at the centre of a new wave of union militancy in the NHS.

More than 130 medical secretaries who work for the City Hospitals Sunderland Trust have been on strike for three weeks.

Yesterday, they were cheered by shoppers during a march through Sunderland.

There was no response from Mr Milburn's office in the Department of Health.