GOVERNMENT health officials have denied operations at two of the region's biggest hospitals could be cancelled because of a scare over possible vCJD contamination.

The Newcastle Hospitals Trust, which manages the Royal Victoria Infirmary and Newcastle General Hospital, in the city, had announced that unless an extra £1.6m could be found to improve sterilisation procedures operations on brain and eye patients could be halted.

It followed a visit by NHS safety officials to look at whether the trust was meeting tough new guidelines on protecting patients from possible contamination with variant CJD.

Experts have decreed that current decontamination measures for instruments used in brain and eye operations do not go far enough, exposing patients to a hypothetical risk from vCJD.

A £200m fund has been set up to pay for sterilisation upgrades around the country.

The visiting officials gave the two Tyneside hospitals "red light" status - along with nine other English NHS trusts - meaning that decontamination procedures needed to be overhauled.

Robin Smith, estates manager for the trust, said that while surg-eons had been given the go-ahead to continue operating until improvements are carried out, the trust was told that operations might have to be cancelled if all the work is not completed.

But a spokesman for the Department of Health categorically denied that the problem could lead to operations being cancelled.

"The trust now has amber status, which means the situation is now adequate. There is no question of cancelling operations," the spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for South Durham Health Care NHS Trust said there had been "a few problems" but the situation had improved.