NORTH YORKSHIRE Emergency Doctors saw their half-millionth patient today.

The co-operative was set-up in April 1996 and now nearly 500 family doctors in York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire are part of the out-of-hours' service.

In York, 110 family doctors provide an out-of-hours' service from Monkgate Health Centre, to their 189,000 patients.

In Selby, 43 doctors use the War Memorial Hospital to provide the out-of-hours' care for a further 102,000 patients.

Few doctors now provide their own night time and weekend service and most surgery telephone lines are switched to NYED when the doctors are off duty.

NYED provides care for 116 hours a week and aims to ensure that patients receive a similar service out of hours as those who need to access the doctor through the normal working day.

Mark Cockerton, general manager of NYED, said: "Since 1996 NYED has transformed the working lives of doctors in the area who previously would have been on call an average of one night in three.

"The pressure of out-of-hours responsibilities has led to problems in GP recruitment in many areas, but this has been less marked in North Yorkshire due to the success of the co-operative.

"The patient response to our service is generally very positive especially when they understand the traditional model of being on call for their own patients out of hours was no longer acceptable to hard-pressed family doctors.

"NYED has helped to ensure that the health care available from family doctors in York and Selby remains at a very high level."

Recent comments from satisfied patients include: "With two young children it is nice to know that someone is at the end of a phone at all hours" and "Just having a service like this is peace of mind."

Updated: 11:33 Saturday, May 04, 2002