Wound Management

Tissue Viability Service

This nurse led service specialises in the prevention of and treatment of complex wounds.

The tissue viability service is part of the County Durham and Darlington Community Health Services specialist services directorate. The clinical team consists of three specialist nurses and an administrator. The service is currently available to any patient of any age who is registered with a County Durham or Darlington GP and who has pressure ulcer prevention needs or has a wound healing problem.  

A wound can be described as a break in the skin, it can be superficial or complex; closed or open, caused by having an operation, an accident or an underlying medical problem.

Although the body is 'programmed' to heal itself for some people healing is delayed or does not happen at all.  This can have a significant impact on their lives, causing many problems including pain and discomfort.  Tissue viability specialises in dealing with these problems and reducing their effect on your life by:

• Working with you and your team of health care professionals
• Acting as a resource for health care professionals on all issues relating to tissue viability
• Performing complex wound assessments following referral from health care professionals   
• Providing advice on treatment and dressings
• Providing unbiased education of all staff groups on any tissue viability subject
• Working with service providers to develop pathways of care and referral guidelines that will prevent admission and unnecessary attendance at hospital whilst facilitating patient choice

Tissue viability referral criteria for your health care professional are:

• If a wound does not respond to 'standard' treatment as expected over a given time period
• If the wound is complex and/or, requires 'advanced' wound therapies
• You feel standard preventative equipment is not being effective
• The wound is outside your field of knowledge or experience
• You are having difficulty controlling: pain, exudate, odour
• You suspect something out of the ordinary

Service Information

What are the hours of operation?

9.00am - 5.00pm
Monday - Friday

The team consist of:
Richard Buckland - tissue viability service team lead
Sue Maguire - tissue viability specialist nurse
Vacant post
Kay Thornton - administrative assistant
The team can be contacted on: Tel. 0191 5692970