Sedgefield Primary Care Trust is investing an extra £5.6m to improve health services in the borough.

The trust, which has a budget of £87m for 2003/2004, has spent a number of months considering how best to spend the additional money.

Officials have been working with hospitals, Sedgefield Borough Council, social services, community groups and patients to find out what improvements they want to see.

The top three things people said they wanted were to be able to see a GP or nurse within 48 hours; more community-based health services and services working together, not against each other.

After considering what people said, the trust, which covers Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and Shildon, produced a local delivery plan which outlines how the extra money will be spent in 2003/2004.

At least £3m will be invested in diagnosing and treating coronary heart disease.

A further £900,00 will improve access for patients to GPs and nurse appointments in an attempt to reduce hospital waiting times and improve accident and emergency services. An additional £200,000 will be spent on expanding services for people with cancer.

Mental health services will get £180,000 including new buildings and services being developed for older people in Bishop Auckland, and at least £100,000 will be invested in new buildings and renovations at health centres.

Nigel Porter, chief executive of Sedgefield PCT, said the trust had been made very aware of what people wanted and expected.

He said: "This will be a challenging year for the Sedgefield Primary Care Trust as we aim to achieve national priorities, achieve waiting time standards and improve health services for local people.

"Although we have not been able to tackle everything on our list, we have been able to identify a very significant level of investment in new or expanded services across the Sedgefield borough. It was very important to Sedgefield PCT to take into consideration the views of local people in identifying how we spent our additional money this year."

To find out more about the work of the trust people are invited to the monthly board meetings, the next of which is on Thursday, May 8, at 2pm.