A £90 million boost for run-down North-East health centres has been announced.
The cash bonanza will transform primary care facilities but patients will have to wait years before they see any improvements.
It includes a long-awaited replacement for the Richardson cottage hospital in Barnard Castle and the creation of a Young Persons Walk-In Centre in Darlington.
But the ambitious modernisation programme will only happen if private companies are willing to invest in the NHS.
It could be three or four years before a start can be made and all the cash must be repaid by the seven primary care trusts in County Durham and Teesside within 20 years.
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.
The UK's largest health union, Unison, welcomed the investment in the region's primary care facilities but "regretted" that expensive private capital was being used instead of cheaper funds obtained through the Treasury.
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