A HEALTH centre that opened five years ago will launch a £350,000 extension today.

Consett Medical Centre, already among the biggest in County Durham, is to almost double in size with the addition of six consulting rooms, which will allow staff to introduce a series of clinics for patients.

The practice, run by Dr Willy Stevenson and Partners, has 12 doctors covering the Consett area and caters for patients from as far as Northumberland.

The centre, in Station Yard, Consett, was originally built in 1999 at a cost of £1.3m to replace existing cramped premises in Medomsley Road.

It was hailed by then Treasury Minister Alan Milburn as the way forward for primary patient care in the rest of the country.

One of the first such facilities to be built under the Private Finance Initiative, the centre is owned by London-based developers CareCapital, which paid for the extension.

Assistant practice manager Linda Gorman said: "We were working in quite cramped conditions and couldn't put on extra clinics as we didn't have the rooms to facilitate them.

"The extra consulting rooms will allow us to improve patient services.

"We are hoping to be able to accommodate more clinics for chronic disease management and will also be able to increase appointments for certain things, such as phlebotomy."

Wynn Griffiths, chief executive of Derwentside Primary Care Trust, said: "The excellent new facilities at Consett Medical Centre will provide a modern, comfortable environment for patients.

"This investment will help the medical centre to expand the range of services on offer and will help to improve the quality of health care provided. It will also make services more easily accessible to local people.

"The primary care trust is committed to improving healthcare services for people in Derwentside and is working with GP practices on a number of developments to improve facilities which will enhance the quality of health care in our area."