A TRANSPLANT centre which is set to make the North East a world leader in organ swaps is on track to open later this year.

From July, staff will begin moving into the Institute of Transplantation at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital. And it is expected the new facility will be up and running by September.

Three years ago Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was given the go-ahead to build the multi-million pound premises, which will substantially increase the number of life-saving transplants in the region.

The centre will bring cardiothoracic transplant surgery, general transplant surgery and renal transplant surgery all under one roof and will include four large operating theatres, a 300-bed ward, an outpatient unit and a training lecture theatre.

David Allison, chief operating officer of Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are on track to open as scheduled and we have been working very hard to get to this point.

“The new centre will be at the cutting edge of medicine internationally and is going to be a one-stop-shop for transplantation.

“We are extremely excited about opening the facility and it will be a centre that will undoubtedly attract leading medical professionals from all over the world to come and work for us.”