County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust needs to improve, report finds

Inspectors have found that a North East NHS trust is in need of improvement.

The Care Quality Commission inspected the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust and found that it ‘requires improvement’ to some areas.

Bosses at the Trust, which runs University Hospital of North Durham and Darlington Memorial Hospital, say they will now be setting out plans to take the organisation to an ‘Outstanding’ rating within the next two years.

The CQC report rated the organisation as ‘Good’ for providing caring and responsive services - but it rated the trust as ‘Requires Improvement’ on whether its services were safe, effective and well-led.

A summary of the main points made in the report were:

• Staff at the hospitals were caring and compassionate, and treated people with dignity and respect.

• Patients told inspectors they were happy with the quality and quantity of food

• Some areas of concerns about the cleanliness and monitoring arrangements for infection control were found within the trusts Accident and Emergency departments.

• There were some examples of patient care records that were not fully completed or kept up to date.

• Supportive documentation on some wards, such as fluid balance charts and risk assessments, were not consistently completed.

• Pharmacy support to wards and community services was also considered to be inconsistent.

• The report raised concerns about staffing levels across a number of services, saying there was a heavy reliance on bank and agency staff to maintain safe staffing levels.