FOUR hundred extra heart bypass operations are to be carried out at a North-East hospital as part of a special allocation of funds by the Government.

The £2m cash boost for The Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle, announced by Health Secretary Alan Milburn, is the first of similar one-off payments to UK heart units to coincide with the publication of the National Plan for the NHS.

Mr Milburn, who has praised The Northern Echo's A Chance To Live campaign to improve heart facilities, said he was announcing the extra money in the North-East because of the area's high rates of heart disease.

Earlier this month The Northern Echo revealed that The Freeman Hospital and South Cleveland Hospital in Middlesbrough, the region's two heart units, planned to invest £16m so they could increase the number of heart bypasses performed in the region from 3,175 to more than 5,215 within three years.

Mr Milburn said that the Government intended to pour extra funds into the areas which have the highest demand for health services.

"We have got to make sure the money goes to those parts of the country with high coronary heart disease rates and where the need is greatest," the Darlington MP said.

The latest money - which is part of the £1.4bn extra for the health service announced in March - will be used to re-open unused operating theatres at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, so more heart bypasses can be carried out, and to recruit more specialist staff.

In another move yesterday, the health service watchdogs, community health councils (CHCs), are to be abolished after more than a quarter of a century speaking out for patients' rights.

CHCs will be replaced by Patient Advocate and Liaison Service (Pals) teams operating inside hospitals, with an annual national budget of around £10m. It is anticipated they could be fully operational within the next two years.

Director of the Association of Community Health Councils for England and Wales (ACHCEW), Donna Covey, said: "CHCs have often been a lone voice for patients within the health service, and were committed to playing their part in the new NHS.

"It would be a tragedy if the legacy of 26 years of patient advocacy and independent scrutiny were to be lost in the push for further reform.