SICK youngsters who need surgery will have to travel to South Manchester with plans for children's facilities at North Manchester General Hospital under threat.

The hospital is unlikely to get its promised improvements after the Royal College of Surgeons tightened its safety guidelines.

They now say that surgery on all children - not just the under-fives - should be carried out at a specialist centre.

Specialist surgery will be carried out at the new Children's Hospital, due to open in 2004, as part of the Manchester Royal Infirmary site. It had been hoped that services would also be provided at North Manchester and Hope Hospital in Salford to replace Booth Hall and Pendlebury's Children's Hospital, which will close when the £400,000 MRI opens.

However, health chiefs have said that a general children's wing will still open at North Manchester before the proposed closures and an announcement is expected in September. At the moment, most children in the south of the borough who need specialist surgery travel Booth Hall or Pendlebury or further afield to places such as Alder Hey.

Mr Ian Rhodes, head of communication for Manchester Health Authority, said: "There will be general medical beds for children at North Manchester as this is the main reason that most children go into hospital, and special facilities in A&E for children.

"Surgery on children is very rare and general surgeons and anaesthetists do not have that much experience of dealing with children. It really comes down to the issue of safety and quality of service."

A spokesman for North Manchester Healthcare NHS Trust, of which the hospital is a part, said: "As far as the trust is concerned we still expect to provide a new children's wing for the future when Booth Hall moves to the new specialist children's hospital."

Bury and Rochdale Health Authortiy said it supported the policy of providing services for children as close to their homes as possible and a spokesman said: "This policy must take into account the increasingly demanding quality guidelines that require centres which are large enough to sustain the necessary staff and facilities."

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