AN innovative walk-in health centre - only the third to be created in the North - was opened yesterday by the town's MP.

Former Health Secretary Alan Milburn toured the new facility at Dr Piper House, in King Street, Darlington, before performing the opening ceremony.

The ground floor of the Darlington Primary Care Trust property has been converted to provide the £2m facility.

The centre will treat patients in clinics held by nurses.

The clinics will run from 7am to 10pm during the week and between 9am and 10pm at weekends.

The centre is only the third of its kind in the region - the other two being in Newcastle and York - and officials from the health trust are confident that it will help to relieve pressure on GP practices and the town's Memorial Hospital.

Mr Milburn said: "The walk-in centre symbolises the sort of health service we can have and need to have in the future.

"It shows that if you put the money in, you get a good return back and end up with an important service which is in tune with how people live their lives."

The chief executive of the trust, Colin Morris, said: "I am absolutely thrilled that the walk-in centre has finally opened.

"It is a fantastic facility right in the heart of Darlington, which will not only improve public access to a medical practitioner, but support the work carried out by the hospital."