THE region is getting another so-called "hip factory", a fast-track surgical centre which runs alongside the normal hospital system.

Plans for the Diagnostic and Treatment Centre (DTC) were approved in principle by Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority.

There are already plans to build a DTC at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, in County Durham, to speed up routine operations.

Now the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead has been chosen for the next one.

At its public board meeting this week, the authority agreed that work should start on a detailed business case to develop the centre.

When it is open in early 2005, it would provide up to 8,000 operations a year for patients living from Berwick to Sunderland.

Equipped with four operating theatres and 60 beds, the centre would initially treat patients who need routine orthopaedic operation, such as hip replacements, as well as those who need surgery for ear, nose and throat conditions.

Although the DTC will be built on a hospital site, it will be run separately.

That means it would not be affected by increases in emergency activity in mainstream hospitals which can result in planned operations being cancelled at short notice.

Yasmin Chaudhry, the strategic health authority's director of planning, modernisation and services, said: "The new centre is part of our drive to reform health services and reduce the length of time that people wait for surgery.

"Not only would the centre provide patients with faster services for routine conditions in specialties where sometimes there have been long waits, but it would also give people more choice about where to have their treatment."

In a separate move, City Hospitals Sunderland is to receive £700,000 from the Department of Health to modernise treatment facilities for patients who need hip replacements.