A PRIVATE company is offering North-East patients the chance to beat long queues for scans . . . if they are prepared to pay £395 a time.

Alliance Medical is giving patients the chance to have private scans using their MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) units at NHS hospitals in Hartlepool and North Tees.

The private scheme has been criticised by doctors in the region, who say it will allow some patients to leapfrog those who cannot afford to pay.

Alliance Medical says that the new service will speed up treatment for patients and take some of the load off NHS scanners.

Patients who pay can have the scan within three days.

NHS patients can wait months to get access to the high-tech equipment.

The two scanners, used to diagnose soft tissue disorders, such as strokes and multiple sclerosis, are normally used by NHS patients free of charge.

But Alliance Medical is offering patients who stump up £395 the chance to have a scan when the equipment is not being used by NHS patients.

A spokesman for Alliance Medical said: "It's a pilot scheme, running in the North-East and Midlands. If it is a success, we would be looking to roll it out around the UK."

The Banbury-based company's clinical director, Dr Andy Dun, said: "Patients sent by their doctors for a scan on the NHS often face a lengthy wait, at what can obviously be a very worrying time. Now people in the North-East do not need to wait any longer for the scan which will determine their treatment."

Dr John Canning, a Middlesbrough family doctor who sits on the British Medical Association's GP Committee, said: "It is very sad that people are put into this position. The fact is that the equipment is there but the NHS can't afford to buy more scans."

He said patients who paid for MRI scans would leapfrog other patients who were waiting for treatment.

Liz Twist, Northern regional officer for the Unison union, said: "Good quality treatment provided in good time is important for the whole our community, not just for those who can afford it. We should be looking at ways to provide this service much more quickly to NHS patients."

Alliance Medical can be contacted on 0845 456 046.