PLANS to increase the number of heart operations at a North-East hospital have taken a step forward.
County Durham and Darlington Health Authority has backed a plan to expand facilities at the cardiothoracic unit at South Cleveland Hospital, Middlesbrough.
By supporting the hospital's proposals, they have fallen into line with the unit's other main commissioning bodies, North Yorkshire Health Authority and Tees Health Authority.
To meet the demand from seriously ill heart patients, the South Cleveland unit wants to be able to carry out an extra 1,000 operations a year from June 2002. To do that, the hospital needs to invest £17.2m in improving facilities.
County Durham and Darlington will contribute an extra £13.5m a year towards the running of the unit.
Now that the hospital's plan has been backed by the three main players in the southern half of the region, it has to be with regional NHS officials by October 31 to be accepted
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