PRACTITIONERS claim that a centre being opened at a North-East hospital today will improve child care.

A £120,000 paediatric assessment unit, which includes six beds and a treatment room at Hartlepool General Hospital, is expected to deal with up to 50 children a week.

It will free up beds in the main hospital's paediatrics ward.

Medical staff at the new centre will care for youngsters until they are well enough to go home. Blood transfusions and scans will be carried out at the centre.

Built for the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust, the centre will cater for children from Hartlepool and east Durham.

Clinical director for paediatric services, Dr Kailash Agrawal, said: "It will greatly improve the care we provide to children. Coming into hospital can be upsetting for young people, especially if they need to be admitted.

"The assessment unit will mean that we can closely observe some children for a few hours before letting them go home, which is much better for the children and their parents or relatives. Previously, they would have been admitted to hospital. The unit will mean that the children's ward can concentrate on treating really poorly children.''

Funding for the new unit also includes the appointment of an extra outreach paediatric nurse, increasing the number of specialist nurses to four. They work with families to support them once a child has returned home.