MPs who fear that the region's health could be damaged by controversial reforms have been given a glimmer of hope.

It follows comments by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt to North-East MPs which suggest that more primary care trusts (PCT) than expected will survive sweeping NHS mergers.

Speaking at an informal House of Commons meeting about the reforms on Tuesday, Mrs Hewitt is said to have told a group of concerned MPs that where PCTs were working well there was no reason to change local arrangements.

This contradicts concerns of a mass cull of PCTs in order to make savings demanded by the Government.

Some MPs fear the abolition of local health organisations will hamper joint efforts with local councils to improve health in the North-East.

The proposals, backed by regional health bosses who say they are only following national directives, would result in four large sub- regional primary trusts replacing the 15 PCTs in the North-East.

In North Yorkshire, one large new trust is expected to be created, replacing the four existing PCTs.

Darlington MP and former Health Secretary Alan Milburn condemned the proposals as "ludicrous" and "ill thought through."

Earlier this week, Mrs Hewitt told a group of backbench MPs that there was no uniform blueprint.

Stockton South MP Dari Taylor and Durham MP Kevan Jones were among the 15 backbenchers at the House of Commons meeting called to voice their concerns.

Both MPs interpret the Health Secretary's comments to mean that some under-threat PCTs may survive.

This is backed up by a statement released by the Department of Health this week stressing that it does not have a "one size fits all" approach to the reorganisation.

Mrs Taylor said she was encouraged by Mrs Hewitt's comments.

"The worry for me is that we could lose the tremendous benefits I have seen from the cooperation of local authority social services and PCT," she added.

She believes the real reason for the merger of PCTs is to off-set the cost of bringing in greater choice for patients.

Mr Jones said: "The PCTs have been led to believe that no change is not an option. The Health Secretary says that is not the case, that is not her instruction to the NHS, it is a misunderstanding and she is going to look into this."

Mr Jones doubts whether the reforms will produce major savings and plans to raise the issue of the cost to the NHS of any redundancy payments.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said the changes to boundaries were intended to reduce "excess bureaucracy in the management of the NHS, freeing at least £250m for reinvestment in patient care by 2007-08".