AS German "flying doctors" arrive this weekend, officials have confirmed that ten of their compatriots have accepted health jobs in the North-East.

A team of four German hospital doctors will fly in later this week to carry out 42 minor orthopaedic operations on Tyneside.

The two surgeons and two anaesthetists have already visited the region to meet patients, but this weekend will begin operating at South Tyneside District Hospital.

Health bosses hope that a total of 250 orthopaedic patients who have been waiting for minor operations to hands, feet and knees, will be treated over the next few months.

The South Shields hospital is one of a handful of NHS trusts to have been allocated MASH-style foreign medical teams to try to reduce waiting lists.

If the £500,000 pilot scheme is a success, it could be rolled out to other hospitals in the region.

Only patients living in Northumberland, Tyneside and Wearside, who have been waiting for at least six months, are eligible for treatment at South Shields.

While the Dussedorf surgical team will eventually return to Germany, at least ten German doctors are packing their bags in preparation for a permanent move to the North-East.

It follows a high-profile visit to Berlin earlier this year by a team drawn from hospitals throughout the region.

Dr Peter Royle, the North-East medical director who is co-ordinating the recruitment drive in Germany, confirmed that seven of the doctors will be hospital based and three will be working in general practice, he added