CONSULTANTS are being paid private rates to clear waiting list backlogs at the North-East's newest hospital, it has been claimed.

Bill Ryder, chairman of the Northern Region Consultants' and Specialists' Committee, said that surgeons at the University Hospital of North Durham have been treating patients at the private Nuffield Hospital, in Newcastle, during NHS time.

He said the NHS was paying the surgeons private rates for operations, which could be up to as much as three times their regular salaries.

Dr Ryder, a consultant anaesthetist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Gateshead, said consultants were unhappy with the system, which he called a "criminal waste of public money".

The 520-bed Durham hospital, which was built under the Government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI), has 32 fewer beds than Dryburn Hospital it replaced, and is struggling to cope with demand.

A letter sent in July by the hospital's chief executive, Steven Mason, to the health authority said "as much activity as possible is being transferred to the private sector" to try to deal with the shortage.

But a hospital spokesman said yesterday: "We do not know of this happening. We cannot say it certainly does not happen. The important thing is to make sure patients are being treated."

The PFI scheme has already come under attack from health workers' unions across the region.

Robin Moss, head of health for Unison's northern region, said: "Dr Ryder's comments confirm what we have said all along. This is a brand new hospital, but it cannot cope.

"It hasn't got enough beds because of the financial constraints imposed on the trust by PFI. It is absolutely scandalous.

"I know my members think it is disgraceful that consultants are being paid twice for doing the same work, but the consultants themselves also feel it is wrong."