Durham Dales Health Federation

Updated 2 December 2024

We previously carried out an inspection at this service on 29 April 2022. The service was rated good overall, with the domains of safe, effective, caring and responsive rated good. The domain of well-led was rated requires improvement. We carried out this assessment to check the progress of the improvements set out in the action plan regarding the well-led domain following our previous inspection. This assessment was carried out on 16 January 2025.

Durham Dales Health Federation is registered as an Out of Hours service which provides extended access arrangements for GP practices across the Durham Dales area. The provider of this service is Durham Dales Health Federation. Further details can be found on the provider’s website at www.ddhf.co.uk.

Extended GP access services are provided from the following sites;

• Bishop Auckland Hospital, Cockton Hill Road, Bishop Auckland, DL14 6AD.

• University Hospital of North Durham, North Road, County Durham, DH1 5TW.

There is an administrative base at, Unit 26, Innovation House, Longfield Road, South Church Enterprise Park, Bishop Auckland, DL14 6XB. As part of this assessment we visited this site.

The extended access services are located in existing hospital accommodation from where they provide this service. The federation employs its own staff. Other services provided include a community wellness team, care navigation, clinical pharmacists, healthcare coordinators, social prescribing link workers, an integrated diabetes service and practice aligned mental health services.

The extended hours and overflow (if extra capacity is needed by local GP practices) services operates at both sites as follows; Monday to Friday 12 noon to 8pm. Weekends and Bank Holidays 8am to 8pm at Bishop Auckland Hospital and 8am to 1pm at University of North Durham. These services are provided by GPs and advanced nurse practitioners.

Patients can access appointments via the NHS 111 service.

Updated 2 December 2024

Patients were positive about the quality of their care and treatment. The service used feedback from the NHS Friends and Family Test, for patient feedback. 93.5% of patients said they were likely or very likely to recommend the service to friends and family and 92.3% of patients said they had their needs met. Comments received included words like, efficient, good, quick and friendly service. They had received 79 compliments in the last 12 months for all services provided, these praised staff and thanked them for a good service and care. Complaints to the service were processed and helped to improve care to patients.

The commission had received 8 items of feedback via their ‘Give feedback on care’ facility on their internet from patients. Six items of feedback were positive praising staff for providing a good service. Two were negative and were unrelated.