PATIENTS in the region are to be treated in mobile operating theatres staffed by surgeons from South Africa as part of attempts to reduce waiting times.

The controversial move has been ordered by Health Secretary Dr John Reid to speed up treatment in areas where NHS patients are facing delays.

The mobile units are heading for Tyneside, Wearside and Northumberland because of long waiting times for patients requiring surgery to remove cataracts.

Netcare, which will provide all of the clinical staff to run the mobile treatment centres, has been awarded the contract to perform 400 cataract operations in the region.

But the first North-East patient is unlikely to be treated by a mobile team until next year.

Richard Friedland, of Netcare, said: "The mobile units are made up of three very large trailers, incorporating an operating theatre, a ward and an outpatients unit."

The Netcare fleet will be operated by South African medical and nursing staff, assisted by other foreign nationals.

Dr Paul Miller, the Sunderland-based chairman of the British Medical Association's consultants' committee, said: "We welcome the extra capacity and the chance to shorten waiting lists for NHS patients, but we want to be sure that the training of future consultant surgeons is protected if thousands of operations are performed in private units.

"We are worried that mobile treatment centres could de-stabilise NHS services if they perform the most straight forward operations, while the NHS is left looking after the more ill and complicated patients."

A Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority spokeswoman said: "We don't expect to start taking up our share of cases until the later years of the contract. In the short-term, we expect the majority of cataract operations to be carried out as normal in NHS hospitals over the next two years."