Paediatric surgeons at Oxford's Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre are making a bid to work at the city's new children's hospital.

Patients will now be consulted about the plans to move them to the nearby John Radcliffe Hospital site, which is overseen by the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.

The Oxford Children's Hospital was originally planned to house children's services relocated from the JR, Radcliffe Infirmary and Churchill Hospital.

But NOC chief executive Ed Macalister-Smith said there were a number of reasons why staff at his hospital wanted young inpatients to be cared for there too.

Following the Bristol Heart Inquiry, new national guidelines had been introduced to minimise risk, and the European Working Time Directive made it difficult to staff wards with junior doctors out of hours.

He said: "There's emerging clinical consensus about taking the inpatient surgery for children and moving it off this site onto the JR. This is supported by clinicians here and clinicians at the JR.

"What will follow is a detailed involvement process for patients and staff. We mustn't do anything that will undermine our reputation."

Some children who have operations at the NOC are already sent to the JR, where there is a paediatric intensive care, for their initial recovery but return to the orthopaedic hospital for rehabilitation.

The new plans mean all surgical patients will be admitted to the children's hospital, although day patients and outpatients will still be treated at the NOC.

Managers have suggested that about 10 beds are ring-fenced for their surgeons' work -- less than the current 14 beds on the NOC's Narni ward. The proposals could become reality when the new unit opens in 2007.

Mr Macalister-Smith said their area of the hospital would be "branded" as the "NOC at the ORH".

He said: "Their senior clinicians are keen to have us represented in phase one of the children's hospital. They see themselves having a really thriving and growing paediatric surgery service and if we move rapidly we could have paediatric space in phase one.

"As a result, we might be able to take on some of the routine work done at the moment at the Radcliffe Infirmary, which we are better placed to do. It could be a win-win situation."

Phillipa Blakey, ORH head of children's services, confirmed the trust was in talks with the NOC.

She said: "Our clinicians have been working with the NOC clinicians for sometime now to manage children's inpatients.

"They feel quite strongly that all inpatients should be on one site."