A PRIVATE unit is being opened in the region to improve facilities for people who are recovering from brain injuries.

The Priory Rehabilitation Centre, in Peterlee, County Durham, will benefit from a recent agreement between the Department of Health and the independent health sector.

It is expected that up to 85 per cent of the referrals to the new unit, when it opens on July 2, will involve NHS patients.

There is a severe shortage of neuro-rehabilitation care available, a problem which was identified in the Health Select Committee's report published earlier this year.

With more than 500 people treated for brain haemorrhages in the North-East every year, it is estimated that there are 20 times as many patients as available beds in the region.

One in 12 people going to a hospital accident and emergency department after a head injury will be left with serious disability.

But specialist rehabilitation can make all the difference to these patients.

The new east Durham unit will offer an intensive programme of rehabilitation that includes speech, physiotherapy, and occupational and cognitive therapy.

Viv Watson, home director at the Peterlee centre, said: "The new independently-run unit will work alongside the local and regional NHS teams to provide a coordinated facility that ensures the best possible levels of care for brain trauma patients.

"There is considerable demand in the North-East for a dedicated unit to manage brain injury patients, which is evident in the level of referrals already secured from across the region."

The Priory unit will also offer the North-East's only service dealing with Persistent Vegetative State.

Carole Lister, who lost her ten-year-old son, Clarke, from a brain haemorrhage and has since set up the Clarke Lister Haemorrhage Foundation to support the work of the unit, said: "The unit is an answer to a prayer."