A NORTH-EAST consultant elected president of the British Orthopaedic Association, has spoken out about the shortages of specialists in the NHS.

Darlington-born Professor Paul Gregg, an orthopaedic surgeon at South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust, said the profession faced significant problems including "long waiting times and insufficient consultant numbers".

He said he was also very concerned that there were "too few training places to train the desperately needed additional consultants of the future".

Prof Gregg has also been appointed vice-chairman of a steering committee set up to oversee the establishment of a national joint register for hip and knee replacements, which will collect information on the implants to provide evidence of their effectiveness.

This will lead to earlier review of patients with failed joint replacements, regular monitoring of performance of new types of joint replacements and faster identification of those joint replacements which perform badly.

The association, which has more than 3,500 members worldwide, supports orthopaedic surgeons through education, training and research.