A QUIET revolution which is opening up the region's medical schools to more local people has been given a boost by Health Secretary Alan Milburn.

As part of the Government's drive to increase access to higher education, a new kind of medical training course has been created in Stockton.

Seventy students - including some who do not come from a traditional academic background - are due to start the new course on Teesside in September. Many are from the North-East or North Yorkshire.

Today Mr Milburn announced that figure is being increased to 95 - plus an extra 25 places for a new style of accelerated medical degree at Newcastle University which aims to convert nurses and other health professionals into doctors.

The 50 extra students is the latest development in an investment programme which will see the number of people studying medicine in the region increasing by around 40 per cent.

It is hoped that the recruitment of more local students will lead to more newly qualified doctors staying in the region.

Speaking at the Stockton campus of Durham University and flanked by senior staff from Durham and Newcastle Universities Mr Milburn said: "Today is an important day for the Health Service and for both universities. We are announcing a big expansion in medical school places and the North-East is getting more than its fair share."

The MP for Darlington said he was delighted that the expansion, part of a wider announcement of new medical schools in Yorkshire and Sussex and 1,000 new medical school places nationally, meant that more places could be offered to people from a variety of backgrounds.

"In the end that will mean we get really good doctors who will understand the needs of the communities they serve," said Mr Milburn.

Professor Peter Baylis, dean of medicine at Newcastle University said: "I think this Government has done a splendid job. A 40 per cent increase over a number of years is just colossal."

Allison Corbett, a 34-year-old mother-of-three from Hartlepool who will stay on to study medicine at Stockton if her foundation year results are good enough, was at the event.

After completing an access course at Hartlepool College of Further Education she heard about the Stockton course and made her mind up she wanted to be a doctor.

"I am just hoping to get the right results," she said.

Updated: 15.48 Friday, March 30.