8 January 2020

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Director of the National Centre for Behavioural Addictions (which comprises the National Problem Gambling Clinic, the Young Persons' Problem Gambling Clinic and the Gaming Disorder Service), said: "We send our congratulations and welcome to the NHS Northern Gambling Service in Sunderland  – a great day and an important expansion of NHS treatment services – with more to come!

"We’re also great collaborators working in this field – supporting and learning from each other and developing a research base and effective treatments. And it’s a collaboration with those most affected – patients and families – who will help shape the service and our plans to develop Peer Support.

"We’re clinical pioneers – working on an issue that blights the lives and health of many people and it is wholly right that the NHS rises to the task, as we are doing today."

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones