University Hospital of North Durham is an
acute care
Acute care is a branch of secondary health care where a patient receives active but short-term treatment for a severe injury or episode of illness, an urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery.Alberta Health ServicesAcute care.Acce ...
hospital built to replace the older Dryburn Hospital on the same site. It is managed by the
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS England, 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-acut ...
.
History
The hospital has its origins in the Dryburn Emergency Hospital which was established at Dryburn Hall, the former home of William Lloyd Wharton, in 1940 during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
After the war the establishment was expanded into a civilian facility known as Dryburn Hospital.
[
A new hospital was procured under a Private Finance Initiative contract which was awarded to a consortium of ]Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Balfour Beatty works acr ...
and the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1998. It was built by Balfour Beatty with an initial cost of £87 million and opened in 2001. Facilities management services are provided by Engie
Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum.
It ...
. Balfour Beatty subsequently sold their stake to Dalmore Capital in 2014.
Services provided
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 single beds in each room, as well as side rooms. A few buildings from the original "Dryburn Hospital" remain in operation. These buildings include Dryburn House which is used as the hospital doctor's residence.
The hospital works in partnership with Bishop Auckland Hospital
Bishop Auckland Hospital is a small NHS district general hospital serving the western part of County Durham, with a primarily rural catchment area centred on the Wear Valley. The hospital is managed by the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foun ...
and Darlington Memorial Hospital. Cases relating to some of the departments not present in the University Hospital of North Durham (e.g. neurosurgery) are referred to the other hospitals for management.
2014 report and response
In 2014 a BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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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". 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.
That focus has resulted in improved patient perceptions
but a 2015 Care Quality Commission assessment of the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust resulted in an overall "Requires Improvement" rating.
A subsequent inspection undertaken in July 2019 and published the following December raised this rating to "Good".