WOMEN'S and children's health services in Bishop Auckland and Darlington will be checked out in an external review which will look for ways of giving them better treatment.

Independent consultants are being brought in by the South Durham Healthcare NHS Trust over the next few months to recommend future developments in obstetrics, gynaecology and paediatric services.

Director of planning and operations Brian James said the trust needed to make the best use of its resources.

He said: "This review will be vital in ensuring that future services match 21st Century health care needs and that women and children in South Durham continue to receive the best possible care."

The trust says that medical and technological advances, new national requirements for the training of junior doctors and a streamlined treatment system have all highlighted the need for the review.

In gynaecology, for example, hospitals may need fewer beds because an increasing number of women who need surgery can be treated in a day unit. At the same time more children are being cared for in their own homes where they feel more comfortable, leading to the introduction of specialist community nursing and increased partnership working with family doctors.

And though information technology GPs will be able to book dates for some types of surgery while their patients are with them with no need for separate outpatient appointments.

Robert Aitken, the trust's clinical director of obstetrics and gynaecology, said: "The health service is going through a period of enormous change and gynaecology is at the leading edge of medical advances. We cannot afford to stand still and this is an ideal opportunity to develop services that are at the forefront of NHS practice."

The consultants, who have not yet been appointed, will eventually report to County Durham and Darlington Health Authority