EIGHT months after it opened, the region's fast-track treatment centre is making inroads into NHS waiting lists, according to health bosses.

Tomorrow's meeting of County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority will be told that the North-East's first Diagnostic and Treatment Centre (DTC), or "hip factory", has increased the number of patients being treated and has reduced the number waiting to be seen.

Officials said the DTC set up within Bishop Auckland General Hospital had "progressed in line with activity plans agreed with the Department of Health".

DTCs aim to provide a fast-track approach to healthcare, diagnosing and treating a range of straightforward conditions.

Part of the reason for the success of the Bishop Auckland scheme was the extra investment provided by the Government, which allowed a fourth operating theatre and a second endoscopy suite to be opened.

Unlike conventional NHS hospitals, which often have to cancel operations because of emergency admissions, the DTCs will only see patients who have been pre-booked.

And unlike the private DTCs announced last week, which will soon be treating NHS patients in unspecified locations in Northumberland and North Yorkshire, the Bishop Auckland centre is run by the NHS.

The units are part of a Government programme designed to enable ambitious NHS Plan targets to be achieved for in-patient and day-case surgery by 2005.

Since it opened, the Bishop Auckland DTC has treated 54 patients from north Durham, who opted for faster endoscopy treatment at the DTC rather than waiting for treatment at the University Hospital of North Durham.

The creation of a DTC to take pressure off the new Durham hospital and Darlington Memorial Hospital is part of a wider plan for closer working between the three County Durham hospitals.

As part of this plan, drawn up by Professor Ara Darzi last year, high-risk maternity services are being transferred from Bishop Auckland to Darlington, to be replaced by a midwife-led maternity service.

This move was due to be completed by last month, but delays meant the transfer will take place in April.

Bosses have calculated that very few women will need to be transferred from Bishop Auckland to Darlington.