University Hospital of North Durham

University Hospital of North Durham
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
Geography
Location Durham, England, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system Public NHS
Hospital type District General
Affiliated university Newcastle University
Services
Emergency department Yes Accident & Emergency
Beds 523
History
Founded 2001
Links
Website http://www.cddah.nhs.uk/Contact+Us/Hospital+Sites/UniversityHospitalNorthDurham.htm
Lists Hospitals in England

University Hospital of North Durham is an acute care hospital built to replace the older Dryburn Hospital on the same site. It is part of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.[1] The hospital was opened in 2001 and was funded using a Private Finance Initiative run by a consortium of Balfour Beatty and the Royal Bank of Scotland with an initial cost of £97million.[2] Balfour Beatty subsequently sold their stake to Dalmore Capital in 2014.[3]

Services Provided

Accident and Emergency, Nurse Practitioners (Out of hours) centre, Maternity Unit/SCBU, Gynaecology, Orthopaedics and Traumas, General Surgery (Day, elective and emergency), Children's Ward, Acute Medical, Intensive Therapy Unit(ITU), Coronary Care Unit(CCU), Dermatology, Vascular Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Stroke Rehab, Haematology

The hospital works in partnership with Bishop Auckland Hospital and Darlington Memorial Hospital and is the largest in the trust (based on bed numbers). The Main Hospital building contains the vast majority of the hospitals departments. It has a basement for pathology and pharmacy and three other floors, each consisting of a long main corridor with wards and departments on both sides. Most of the wards consist of four bedded single sex bays.

A few buildings from the original 'Dryburn Hospital' remain. These are used for less acute services such as the renal dialysis centre. This area is called the East Wing.

The hospital is supported by a further 88 community hospital beds in its catchment region for rehabilitation.

Criticism

In 2014 a BBC report identified that "out of 126 serious incidents when patients were delayed admission to hospitals for more than two hours, 71 happened at the University Hospital of North Durham".[4] The hospital trust subsequently announced "they had earmarked £5.6million to invest into the emergency departments at Darlington Memorial Hospital and University Hospital of North Durham".[5]

See also

References

  1. "County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust: Hospitals and Clinics". NHS Choices. NHS Choices. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  2. "Memorandum by North Durham Health Care NHS Trust (PS 40)". parliament.co.uk. Select Committee on Health. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  3. Armitage, Jim. "Balfour Beatty turns a huge profit on building schools and hospitals". independent.co.uk. The Independent. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  4. "Accident and emergency delays face thousands of patients". bbc.co.uk. BBC News. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  5. Henderson, Vicki. "Hospital trust announces plans to spend £5.6m improving A&E in Darlington and Durham". thenorthernecho.co.uk. The Northern Echo. Retrieved 15 November 2014.

External links