County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
Coordinates: 54°47′20″N 1°35′35″W / 54.789°N 1.593°W County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS Foundation Trust based in North East England. It runs two acute hospitals in University Hospital of North Durham and Darlington Memorial Hospital as well as further non-acute centres at Shotley Bridge Community Hospital, Sedgefield Community Hospital, Richardson Hospital, Weardale Hospital, Bishop Auckland Hospital and Chester-le-Street Community Hospital. The Chief Executive is Sue Jacques. Its quality of services and use of resources were rated 'good' by the HealthCare Commission Ratings.
The Trust logged 1570 breaches of the 30 minute handover rule from ambulances to its A&E department during the same period as well as 360 breaches of the 60 minute target, triggering fines of £674,000.
A Care Quality Commission survey found that the Trust was among the best in England for its maternity services in December 2013. A subsequent review by the CQC noted that "People were not being protected from the risks of unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment because accurate and appropriate records were not always being maintained."
The Trust set up trial of a digital self-testing service for patients using Warfarin in 2013. They are given a Roche CoaguChek XS monitor and testing strips. This gives a reading of their international normalised ratio, a measure of how quickly blood clots – which they can share with clinic staff via an automated phone call. The software which drives the automated process is produced by Inhealthcare Ltd. The 200 patients on the trial improved the time they were in therapeutic range from 60% of the time to 75% which reduces the risk of complications. They no longer have to come to the hospital every two weeks and are less likely to be admitted. Patients are enthusiastic about the benefits.
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