CAMPAIGNERS who are opposed to radical changes to North-East NHS boundaries have been given new hope.

It has emerged that Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has heeded the outcry from MPs and councillors over plans to cull most primary care trusts (PCT) in the North-East.

The move by the Department of Health means that people in the region will get the chance to influence the future shape of the NHS.

It could mean that hundreds of NHS workers whose jobs might disappear could be reprieved.

A number of MPs and councillors had complained that proposals to set up four large sub-regional primary trusts, replacing the 15 PCTs would take away local control from communities and disrupt increasingly close working relationships between the NHS and local councils.

The strongest protests came from areas such as Darlington, Hartlepool and Stockton, where the local PCTs occupy the same territory as local unitary councils.

It led former Health Secretary Alan Milburn to describe the original proposals as "ludicrous and ill thought-out".

But NHS officials in the region have confirmed that the local consultation process, due to begin on December 14 and run for 14 weeks, will give people two options.

The first option for PCTs, which is preferred by regional health bosses, would see 15 trusts going down to enlarged trusts in County Durham and Darlington; Teesside; South of Tyne and Sunderland; North of Tyne and Northumberland.

The alternative option is to set up 12 PCTs which would share the same boundaries as the ten unitary local authorities and two county councils.

This means two for the counties of Durham and Northumberland, five for the local authority areas of Tyne and Wear (Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland) and five for the local authority areas across Teesside (Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough and Langbaurgh) and Darlington.