Archived: Durham Dales Health Federation

Updated 30 August 2019

The provider of this service is Durham Dales Health Federation, which is a federation of 12 GP practices in the Durham Dales area. They are registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide urgent care services. They provide an extended GP access service from the following locations;

• Bishop Auckland Hospital, Cockton Hill Road, Bishop Auckland, DL14 6AD
• Richardson Community Hospital, Victoria Road, Barnard Castle, DL12 8HT
• Stanhope Health Centre, Dale Street, Stanhope, DL13 2XD

We visited Bishop Auckland Hospital and the administrative base at Station View Medical Centre, 29a Escomb Road, Bishop Auckland, DL14 6AB as part of this inspection.

The extended access services are located in existing hospital accommodation and a GP practice. They use their accommodation to provide this service.

The federation employs its own staff. They provide other services, such as a vulnerable adult wrap around service and the staff work across the services.

The service employs two GPs, one nurse clinical lead and seven advanced nurse practitioners, there is an administrative team leader and seven administrative staff. The services use locum staff when necessary.

The times and clinicians who deliver the service is as follows;

• Bishop Auckland Primary Care Service – 6pm to 8pm Monday to Friday, weekends and bank holidays 8am to 1pm; these services are GP led. There is an overflow service (if extra capacity is needed) Monday to Friday 12 noon to 5pm, this is advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) led.
• Barnard Castle Primary Care Service – 6pm to 8pm Monday to Friday, weekends and bank holidays 8am to 1pm; this service is ANP led, with a GP on call.
• Weardale Primary Care Service (Stanhope Health Centre) – 6pm to 8pm Monday to Friday, weekends and bank holidays 8am to 1pm; this service is ANP led with a GP on call.

Patients can access appointments via the NHS 111 service; they can arrange either face to face appointments or telephone triage appointments (known as warm transfers)

GP practices in the federation can book patients into the overflow at Bishop Auckland.

The service for patients requiring urgent medical care outside of these and the GP surgery hours is provided by the NHS 111 service.

Updated 30 August 2019

This service is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Durham Dales Health Federation, on 30 July 2019 as part of our comprehensive inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The service had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care they provided. They ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care