HEALTH service managers have promised an investigation after it emerged that ambulances will have difficulty reaching the casualty department of a new £90m hospital.

Paramedics say the accident and emergency department at the hospital has been built too close to another building.

At present, up to seven ambulances at a time can park in the bays outside Dryburn Hospital's casualty department, in Durham City, and are reversed in so trolleys can be wheeled from the vehicle straight inside.

But the approach to the new accident and emergency department is so narrow that only two ambulances can squeeze in - and only if they drive in nose first.

Paramedics' union officials described the situation as "totally inadequate".

Ray McDermott, Unison branch spokesman for the North-East Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: "The new Dryburn Hospital may well be the most modern hospital in the North-East, but you can't get to it."

Plans for the hospital, to be renamed the University Hospital of North Durham when it opens in April, suggested ambulance crews would have enough room to manoeuvre.

But there is room for only two ambulances to park side-by-side, because the department has been built close to a building known as the doctor's residence.

Mr McDermott said: "This hospital is the main accident and emergency reception for the whole of the north of Durham.

"At any one time we could have six or seven emergency ambulances there."

He said ambulances would also be dropping off patients for routine out-patient appointments in the same area.

"What do they expect us to do, drop our patients off at Aykley Heads roundabout?" he said.

He urged hospital bosses to consider demolishing the doctor's residence, which is understood to be a listed building.

A spokeswoman for North Durham Health Care NHS Trust, which will run the new hospital, said: "The issue has been raised and we are looking into the matter."

A Durham City Council spokesman said: "The health authority told us what their requirements were and asked for planning permission so the operational requirements were down to the applicant."

Gerry Steinberg, Labour MP for Durham City, suggested demolition of part of nearby Dryburn Hall as a possible solution.

The MP said it was possible for an application to be made directly to the Department of Environment for the building to be delisted.