A PRIVATE hospital in the region has signed a deal to operate on Dutch patients while thousands remain on North-East waiting lists.

The private Woodlands Hospital, in Health Secretary Alan Milburn's Darlington constituency is treating the patients as part of a scheme to cut waiting lists in Holland.

The Woodlands already treats many NHS patients, but bosses say there is room for more.

So far, four patients have taken the 80-minute trip from Amsterdam to Teesside Airport and more will follow each month. Patients are accompanied by a surgeon, a relative and an interpreter.

Peter Fermoy, spokesman for the Independent Healthcare Association, which represents private hospitals in the UK, congratulated the Woodlands on finding a new market in Holland.

But Mr Fermoy urged the Government to make more use of spare capacity in the private sector.

"In 2001, around 80,000 NHS patients were treated in the independent sector. We would suggest that there is the potential to double that number year on year," he said.

Mr Fermoy said the problem was the "short-termism" of health authorities and NHS trusts, which opted to use the private sector as a last resort when waiting list figures were getting too long.

"If the NHS isn't going to take up the spare capacity, it is only right that hospitals will seek patients from elsewhere," he said.

The former South Durham NHS trust, which includes Darlington Memorial Hospital and Bishop Auckland General Hospital, has 1,163 patients waiting for orthopaedic surgery.

Thousands of other orthopaedic patients in the region are waiting for surgery.

But a spokeswoman for the trust said: "Our patients are treated within 12 months, which is the national target. Around 88 per cent are treated within nine months."

Woodlands medical director Howard Rutherford said: "We are already very busy with NHS work but we would be delighted to do more."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said the use of the private sector was "a matter for local management".