A HEALTH centre which opened just five years ago has unveiled a £350,000 new extension.

Consett Medical Centre, already among the biggest in County Durham, is to almost double in size with the addition of six new consulting rooms, which will allow staff to introduce new clinics for patients.

The practice, run by Dr Willy Stevenson and Partners, has 12 doctors covering the Consett area and caters for patients from as far away as Northumberland.

The centre, in Station Yard, was built in 1999 at a cost of £1.3m to replace cramped premises in Medomsley Road and was hailed by the then Treasury minister Alan Milburn, as the way forward for primary patient care in the rest of the country.

One of the first such centres to be built under the Private Finance Initiative, the centre is owned by London-based developers CareCapital, which has paid for the work.

Assistant practice manager Linda Gorman said: "We were working in quite cramped conditions and couldn't put on extra clinics. The extra consulting rooms will allow us to improve patient services.

"We are hoping to be able to accommodate more clinics for chronic disease management and will also be able to increase appointments for certain things, such as phlebotomy."

Wynn Griffiths, chief executive of Derwentside Primary Care Trust, who officially opened the expansion on Tuesday, said: "The excellent new facilities at Consett Medical Centre will provide a modern, comfortable environment for patients. This investment will help the medical centre to expand the range of services on offer and will help to improve the quality of health care provided. It will also make services more easily accessible to local people.

"The Primary Care Trust is committed to improving health care services for people in Derwentside and is working with GP practices on a number of developments to improve facilities, which will enhance the quality of health care in our area."