North Durham hospital is a state of the art £91m hospital opened in 2001. It has 591 beds, and hosts specialist services in dermatology and plastic surgery.

The hospital was only built because of Labour's commitment to invest in the NHS.

In 1997 Labour inherited an NHS which had been neglected and underfunded for years. Undervalued staff were working to maintain a decent service in buildings which were crumbling while waiting lists rose and we faced a shortage of doctors and nurses.

Under the Tories you could wait 18 months for treatment, today no one waits more than 20 weeks for inpatient treatment in Durham and by 2010 no one will wait more than 18.

Top Lib Dems want to break up our NHS and replace it with an insurance based system putting the those unable to pay at risk.

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