Decision to be made today on hospitals plan

In the £200m proposals, health chiefs want to transfer all serious emergency care cases from North Tyneside and Wansbeck general hospitals to a new centre near Moor Farm roundabout near Cramlington.

Serious emergency care, consultant-led maternity services and special care baby units would be moved from the two hospitals to the acute care site.

A further £125m would be spent upgrading North Tyneside and Wansbeck general hospitals in the 10-year plan, while community hospitals in Berwick, Haltwhistle and Morpeth would be improved.

The new hospital, to be opened in 2012, would be expected to treat around 60,000 patients each year.

It would have an emergency care department staffed by specialist emergency care consultants and senior doctors, medical specialists would be on duty during the day and in the evening as well as on call during the night.

The hospital would have seven wards and 210 beds - most, if not all, single rooms with bathrooms - the latest diagnostic equipment, and an intensive care unit providing specialist care to up to 18 patients.

Earlier Chris Biggin, Emergency Medicine Consultant at the Trust, told The Journal: "As a consultant, I want to be able to take the best practice available world-wide and offer this to patients in Northumbria.

"To do this, I see a specialist emergency hospital as the only logical next step. It will allow us to take emergency medicine to the next level."

The new hospital would be funded by a £60m Government loan, paid back over 25 years, with the rest to be taken from money set aside by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

David Evans, medical director for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said at the beginning of the consultation process: "As doctors we want to help make people who become ill better.

"We want to increase their chance of survival, improve their quality of life after illness and make sure that the risk of ongoing illness or disability is reduced. These proposals help us to do this."

The existing general hospitals would continue to be where most care is provided. They would have walk-in services for non-life threatening illnesses and injuries, outpatient clinics, planned operations, tests and procedures, inpatient care, palliative care and diagnostics.

Wansbeck and North Tyneside Generals would be improved and refurbished.

But the plans have divided opinion.

Some believe the new hospital will duplicate services already offered by Newcastle hospitals and others fear the location proposed would cause difficulties for patients and their relatives accessing the service.

A report by the joint health scrutiny committee from North Tyneside, Northumberland and Newcastle councils said: "Whilst it was noted that sites are still being explored a visit with the Trust's land agent to possible sites indicated that people without a car will experience considerable difficulties in getting to the site of the proposed new hospital particularly at off-peak times and at weekends.

"Only one of the sites was close to Cramlington bus/rail interchange and most were on spinal roads rather than residential areas served by bus services.

"The practicalities of how families, at a time of significant trauma, access any new hospital in that vicinity were of concern to members particularly as the North East has a very low level of car ownership."

Berwick councillor Brian Douglas questioned whether the North East Ambulance Service would be able to offer a good enough service to people living in the rural north of the county.

He said: "The ambulance service already struggles to meet its required response times in the north and west of the county so that is a primary concern for the new set-up.

"People worry whether our ambulance service will be able to get patients to a new emergency care hospital in Cramlington quickly enough."

A meeting of the NHS North of Tyne commissioning board will take place at the White Swan Centre, Killingworth, North Tyneside, at 3pm today to discuss the outcome of the consultation process and a decision about the new hospital will be made.