FEARS have been raised about the future of a County Durham hospital after it emerged a 24-bed ward could close.

Last night County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust confirmed it was consulting on the closure of Bishop Auckland Hospital’s ward six.

The nurse-led ‘step down’ ward is for patients who no longer require doctor care but are not ready to go home.

Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman said: “This news of a proposed ward closure is extremely disappointing, but sadly doesn’t surprise me.

"With the Tory government pushing the NHS to breaking point, NHS Trusts are put in increasingly impossible situations, and patients are taking the hit. “

News of the proposed closure comes just one week after proposals to shut the out-of-hours GP service at Richardson Hospital, in Barnard Castle, were announced.

Around 20 members of staff currently work in ward six at Bishop Auckland.

Under the proposed scheme the ward’s services would be “consolidated” and staff would be given the opportunity to “move and support services on other sites”.

Durham County Cllr for Bishop Auckland Sam Zair spoke of his shock at the announcement while Cllr Joy Allen vowed to lobby the hospital.

Cllr Allen said: “This news will come as a another body blow to the staff, residents and service users of Bishop Auckland hospital who have been calling for more services to be delivered at this modern hospital.

“These calls have been answered in recent times when the foundation trust has invested in state of the art equipment such as the MRI scanner and two new theatres to improve the outcomes of patients either in their diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.”

And Cllr Zair said: “My first thoughts are ‘here we go again’. I just wish the trust would leave Bishop Auckland alone. Over the last ten sears they have severely cut services.

“There’s been a lot of work to build up confidence with patients.

“I feel the hospitals will be sending patients home far too early and they will be resubmitted to hospital because of that.”

It is understood the trust has recently won a contract, starting this week, which has shifted its focus to increasing patient care in the community and outside of hospital.

A trust spokesperson said the consultation was based on “demand, staffing and bed occupancy across its sites”.

They added: “We continually review the needs of our local communities and how we can best meet these needs, within resources, both now and in the future.

“This often means we need to be flexible with our staffing and resources to ensure we are providing safe, quality care for our patients.”