A HUGE privately-funded health care modernisation programme has been launched in the region.

The £90m investment scheme aims to upgrade, expand and refurbish health centres and clinics throughout County Durham and Teesside.

If it succeeds, it should transform facilities for patients throughout the area within about ten years.

Apart from GPs' surgeries, the scheme is aimed at improving facilities for doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other health workers.

It would also see the construction of a new community hospital in Barnard Castle.

The scheme is a new departure for primary care trusts, which have to find private sector partners willing to fund their schemes over a 20-year period.

During that time, the trusts will have to pay hefty annual service charges to the private companies.

In a separate development, the Department of Health is releasing £2.3m to fund the opening of 15 one-stop primary care centres across the North-East and North Yorkshire.

The centres, which aim to offer an expanded range of primary care services under one roof, will be built in Darlington, Gateshead (two), Hartlepool, Middlesbrough (three), Scarborough, Whitby and Rydale (six), South Tyneside and Sunderland.

Colin McLeod, chief executive of Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust, speaking on behalf of all seven trusts in County Durham and Teesside, said: "Developing a range of services in the community, closer to people's homes, will give much better and faster access to treatment and care. We are absolutely delighted that this flagship scheme has got the go-ahead."

Mr McLeod said he hoped that much of the investment would be made during the first five years of the programme.

Liz Twist, head of health for Unison in the Northern region, said: "We welcome this investment but it is cheaper for the public sector to borrow money than the private sector.

"It means we end up paying money which goes towards shareholders' profits.