SEXUAL health clinics in the region have the worst record in England for treating patients with symptoms, it was revealed last night.

The poor record of North-East GUM (Genito-Urinary Medicine) clinics was highlighted by a survey carried out for the BBC1 Panorama programme last night.

The survey of 269 GUM clinics found that more than a quarter are unable to treat patients needing urgent attention within the recommended 48 hours.

Some clinics are turning away new patients, most have closed down their walk-in services and others are asking patients to wait up to two months for routine appointments.

Professor George Kinghorn, one of the UK's leading experts on sexual health, told Panorama that the situation amounted to "a public health crisis".

The survey was conducted against the backdrop of a huge increase in sexually transmitted disease.

According to the BBC, in the last decade, cases of gonorrhoea and HIV have more than doubled and syphilis cases went up by 1,500 per cent.

The number of under-25s infected with chlamydia is now thought to number just under 500,000. Fifteen clinics in the North-East were asked a series of questions.

It turned out that only eight clinics (53 per cent) could treat a client with symptoms within 48 hours. This was far worse than the national average of 73 per cent.

The average waiting time for a routine appointment was 18 days, worse than the national average of 15 and comparing poorly with the North-West's figure of eight days. By contrast, 85 per cent of the 26 clinics in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire could treat a client with symptoms within 48 hours, the best result in England.

A spokeswoman for the South Tees Hospitals Trust, which runs The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, said: "We triage clients as a matter of course and every effort is made to see someone there and then if it is serious."