TWO North-East hospitals become the region's first NHS Foundation Trust tomorrow.

City Hospitals Sunderland was awarded the position after narrowly missing out in the first wave of Foundation Trusts announced earlier this year.

Trust chairman David Graham said: "We are delighted to become a Foundation Trust and to be the first in the region."

Foundation hospitals are run by a board elected by members of the public. They have greater freedom and are able to borrow extra cash and set different pay rates.

William Moyes, chairman of the NHS Regulator that appoints Foundation hospitals, described the new group of Foundation trusts as "some of our largest and most prestigious hospitals".

Others to achieve the status include Cambridge University Hospitals, London's Guy's and St Thomas' and University College.

Mr Graham said: "This is a really historic moment in Sunderland healthcare.

"Foundation status is another phase in the development of the Trust, and one that devolves power away from the centre to the people of the city who use the service." City Hospitals Sunderland employs 4,600 staff on two main sites - Sunderland Royal Hospital and Sunderland Eye Infirmary.

It became an NHS trust ten years ago and has been a consistently high performer since health services first started to be measured in the 1990s.

It has some of the country's lowest waiting times and has been a three-star hospital for three years running. It has also been one of the UK's Top 40 Hospitals in the CHKS annual awards for four years in a row.

It emerged out of Sunderland's first poorhouse, which was opened in 1744. The workhouse was gradually transformed into the District General Hospital, renamed Sunderland Royal Hospital in 1997.

Sunderland Royal Infirmary, now the eye infirmary, was founded in 1823 through public subscription.

Five more North-East trusts are in line for Foundation status: North Tees and Hartlepool; Harrogate; York; South Tyneside and Gateshead.