A NEW health authority is being set up to ensure that patients in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear get the best from their NHS.

Northumberland and Tyne and Wear Health Authority will be the local headquarters of the NHS responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the health system on behalf of the Department of Health.

Its job will be to monitor the region's frontline NHS organisations to make sure they are providing well-planned, well-run services that meet the needs of their communities and targets set by Government.

Its first public meeting will be in Gateshead Civic Centre, at 2pm tomorrow, when it will set out how it will work and outline the challenges it will face.

Authority chairman Peter Carr said: "The new health authority will play a crucial role in the modernisation of NHS services across Northumberland and Tyne and Wear over the next few years.

"The NHS Plan set out many targets to ensure that, in the future, services are improved and are centres on the needs of patients."

The new organisation will replace four small health authorities - Gateshead and South Tyneside, Newcastle and North Tyneside, Northumberland and Sunderland.

Many of the functions previously carried out by these health authorities will transfer to the new primary care trusts in Tyne and Wear and the Northumberland Care Trust.