A STAFFING crisis, which means a £1m brain scanner is lying idle at one hospital, is affecting many North-East trusts, it was revealed last night.

As exclusively reported in The Northern Echo earlier this week, a shortage of trained radiology staff at the flagship James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough means a new neuroscience scanner cannot be used.

But according to the Royal College of Radiologists, the problems on Teesside are affecting almost every hospital.

This is backed by a survey of North-East NHS trusts, which revealed that most hospitals have vacancies for medically-trained radiologists or radiotherapists.

Many hospitals are trying to get around this problem by asking staff to work longer hours, but a North-East representative of the college warned that this was unsustainable in the long-term.

Dr Paul Dubbins, vice-president of the college, said the failure of successive governments to take action over shortages of radiologists had created a crisis which is not likely to ease for a decade.

"We are now working closely with the government to expand training and, by 2010, we should have doubled the number of radiologists," he said.

Dr Anil Ghulkar, who is based at Newcastle General Hospital, said he believed most hospitals in the region have at least one vacancy for a radiologist, and the practice of asking staff to work longer hours could not last forever.

The scale of the problem at South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust - which runs the £165m revamped James Cook hospital - has been confirmed after detailed information was given about vacancies.

The Middlesbrough trust, which serves Teesside, South Durham and North Yorkshire, has vacancies for six radiologists, five radiographers and 2.4 senior neuro-radiographers.

A spokesman for the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, the North-East's main centre for specialist referrals, said he thought the trust had at least three radiography vacancies.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust has one vacancy for a consultant radiologist at the University Hospital of North Durham and one vacancy for a senior radiographer at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Dr Peter Gill, clinical director of radiology at the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS trust, said the trust had three unfilled radiology posts.