HEALTH officials have started recruiting staff for the next development at a private psychiatric hospital near Darlington.

Trees Park Healthcare, shortly to change its name to Middleton St George Hospital, is expanding its psychiatric facilities on its site near Teesside Airport.

A 20-bed psychiatric unit, called the Sycamore unit, opened in February this year and has proved a great success.

The next phase is a small ten-bed intensive care unit, called the Rowan Unit, which is due to open next month.

The hospital is in the process of recruiting 27 staff for the unit.

Chief executive Arthur Robinson said: "We are recruiting not only locally but all over the world. We recognise there is a shortage of psychiatrists and nurses in the UK, so we are doing our best to try to import professionals.

"We are advertising in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and some EU countries where there is an excess of nurses such as Spain and Finland."

Hospital owner Affinity Healthcare is pumping £4m into the development, creating more than 100 jobs over the next 12 months.

After the opening of the Rowan unit, the next development will be a 14-bed high dependency unit for people needing long-term rehabilitation. That is expected to be completed next February.

Work will then start on upgrading the Park Lodge building into a detoxification unit, and there are plans to build an eating disorder unit.

Since Affinity Healthcare took over the site last year, the number of nursing homes have been cut from seven to four.

The closures led to dozens of job losses and several elderly residents having to find new homes.

Mr Robinson said: "That programme has been completed and we will be supporting and strengthening those four nursing homes."

He added: "Within 12 months we will have a whole hospital site with some care homes from the original site."

The Rowan unit will be opened at the start of next month, coinciding with an art exhibition on the site