Patients at the centre of a CJD scare in Middlesbrough have met doctors to talk about their risk of contracting the brain disease.

The patients all had operations last summer involving instruments which may have been used on a patient suffering from sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

They were told in November last year they would be contacted within two weeks to be told exactly what their individual risk levels were.

South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust has apologised to patients for a delay in dealing with their cases

Dr Paul Lawler accepted patients were angry

Since the news came to light in October last year, the trust has been looking at each patient's case but experts insist the risk of contracting the disease is "minuscule".

Historically there have only been five cases of the fatal brain disease being transmitted through neurosurgical operations.

All patients involved in the scare were treated at Middlesbrough General Hospital in July.

Medical Director for South Tees NHS Trust Dr Paul Lawler told BBC Radio Newcastle the patients had been through a "traumatic" time.

He said: "They had to assume that they had been infected.

"Its a bit like being told you have got Aids without any notice, and that's quite frightening for everyone.

Improved system

"They were clearly distraught.

"They have been through a pretty terrible time being told this so unexpectedly, so whatever the outcome, they have been traumatised."

At the time of the incident, the hospital said it had followed official guidelines on when instruments should be removed from use.

Dr Lawler said new measures have now been introduced to trace the equipment used in operations.

He said: "The system now is improved from before.

"Now we know that if any patient has an operation, we are able to trace those instruments back to the original patient.

"Instead of a very large number of instruments we have considerable difficulty tracing, we don't have any difficulty tracing them now."