A SKIN service to be launched next month is expected to reduce hospital waiting lists for dermatology and minor surgery.

The scheme places Darlington Primary Care Trust at the forefront of skin treatment in the country.

A primary care skin team, comprising two former GPs and senior nurses, will operate the £230,000 initiative.

Doctors Christie Chou and Tim Cunliffe have given up their practices to run the skin service.

Health officials expect that patients will have to wait no more than two weeks to be seen, compared with present waiting times of up to four months in parts of the region.

The Darlington trust's head of commissioning, Sharon Smith, said: "This is a national first and a beacon site for the rest of the country.

"It provides a real opportunity to develop capacity within primary care that will support the delivery of improved waiting lists, times and access to services."

Eventually, the unit will be based at the trust's £1m primary care centre, which is being developed in the town's King Street. Until then, it will be in the Woodland Hospital, at Morton Park.

It will concentrate on suspected cases of skin cancer and pre-malignant skin conditions, benign skin lesions, large cysts, resistant warts and scars. Treatment will involve minor surgery and laser techniques which can be administered using local anaesthetics.

Both specialist doctors will also provide a skin triage service for minor problems and laser surgery, and will direct patients either to the primary care skin service or to hospital. However, GPs will be urged to direct people with conditions including psoriasis, blistering and alopecia to hospital.

The service could be opened to patients from other areas, with Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust already having shown interest.