Darlington Memorial Hospital

Story

Darlington Memorial Hospital is an acute NHS hospital providing healthcare for people living in south Durham which includes the towns of Darlington, Newton Aycliffe, Bishop Auckland, Shildon, Ferryhill and Barnard Castle. The hospital was recently rated as requires improvement following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission for England.The Hospital is run by (and serves as the headquarters for) the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, which achieved Foundation Trust status in 2007.ServicesThese include: Accident and Emergency, Maternity/SCBU, Children's Ward, Trauma and Orthopaedics, General Surgery, Acute Medical, Chemotherapy, Intensive Therapy Unit, High Dependency Unit, Coronary Care, Ear Nose and Throat Unit and Eye Unit.The main 'tower block' is the most modern and distinctive part of the hospital. It has a basement a ground floor and six further floors. It contains all the wards in the hospital, the eye and ENT departments, the pathology department, the lecture theatre and library, catering services, restaurant and some administrative facilities.To the front of this is a three-storey building which contains accident and emergency, the main outpatients department, theatres, radiography and physiotherapy. The pharmacy and domestics are in the basement of this building.The site also contains 'the Women's Centre' and a large portion of the offices for the health trust.Other facilities include a childcare centre for the doctors.