Call 4 Concern

As part of our commitment to providing safe, compassionate and joined-up care to all our patients and our local populations, we have adopted Call 4 Concern.  This enables patients, relatives and carers to ring our Acute Intervention Team for immediate help and/or advice when they are concerned about a patient's condition.

We recognise that sometimes patients, relatives and carers can tell when something is wrong and, in the first instance, any concerns should be raised with the ward team, however, if, having done this, their worries continue, they will now have the option to make a Call 4 Concern.

Having spoken to the patient, their relative or carer, the Acute Intervention Team practitioner will prioritise the urgency of the concern and, where appropriate, visit the patient on the ward to discuss the concerns and assess them, if necessary.  Call 4 Concern will be available at our three main sites; University Hospital of North Durham, Darlington Memorial and Bishop Auckland Hospitals.

The Acute Intervention Team already works closely with ward teams and are independent from the daily care patients receive.  They provide a fresh, independent, clinical perspective and through Call 4 Concern, they're supporting busy clinical teams by liaising directly with the patient, and their family where relevant, addressing the specific clinical issues raised.

There will be times when the Acute Intervention Practitioner may be with another patient, therefore not immediately available. They will return calls as soon as possible.  There's a leaflet explaining when Call 4 Concern might be useful - ask wards for details.  The leaflet also details the kind of issues it doesn't cover - such as car parking, hospital food, cleanliness, visiting times etc.  These concerns should be directed to our Patient Experience Team at: cdda-tr.patientexperiencecddft@nhs.net or by ringing Freephone: 0800 783 5774.