A MEDICAL centre is to be opened in the heart of an industrial estate - one of the first schemes of its kind in the country.

The revolutionary service is being set up to look after the health of up to 15,000 people employed on the Aycliffe Industrial estate, most of them in manual industries, where workplace accidents are most common.

Medical staff and paramedics working from the centre will help treat workplace injuries and prevent future accidents by offering medical training. They will also be ideally placed to respond to any industrial accidents.

Once operating, it is hoped 90 per cent of casualties from the estate can be treated at the fully-equipped centre, rather than in hospital.

Response teams hope it will help them meet their eight-minute target for emergency responses.

The centre's director of training Rosie Yates said: "We are probably the first in the UK that has set up this kind of operation.

"One of the benefits of the service is that not only does it get people back to work quicker, but it saves the health service time and money, especially for things like dressings.

"It should also save the ambulance service wasted journeys when they need to be meeting response times, which is mostly eight minutes."

The number of ambulances has been increased from two to six, with the ambulance service's move from its previous base in Newton Aycliffe. Paramedics will continue to respond to emergencies for the NHS.

The medical centre has been set up in conjunction with several agencies, including the Health and Safety Executive and the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents.

Medical training and health checks will also be offered to staff from about 400 companies on the estate, in a training room equipped with £30,000 worth of equipment.

Councillor Bill Blenkinsopp, Durham county councillor for the area, said: "As far as I'm concerned it is good for jobs and people who work on the estate."

The centre, at Langton Business Centre, in Durham Way North, will open in the next few weeks.