About our service
Our service is available 7 days a week, 365 days a year, to support health care professionals, members of the public and patients. Our team of fully trained call handlers take enquiries before redirecting to the most appropriate service or team. We have access to fully qualified nursing and therapy staff, who will then provide clinical triage where needed. Depending on individual needs, we can process referrals for several of our community services, including:
- Community therapy
- Adult bladder and bowel services
- District nursing teams
- Specialist palliative care (weekends and bank holiday’s only)
- ANP’s (assistant nurse practitioners) covering care homes in County Durham and Darlington
- Urgent Community Response (UCR)
- Home oxygen
Referrals to our service can be made by a patient or carer, health or social care professionals or any other member of the public.
• Patients living in County Durham can telephone: 03000 267 979 (option 2)
• Patients living in Darlington can telephone: 01325 342 111
• GP’s can make non-urgent referrals into our service via SystmOne
Note: if you are experiencing a medical emergency, please dial 999.
A decision to admit a patient’s caseload will then be made by a district nurse or other experienced staff nurse, according to local referral criteria. The district nursing service utilises new and existing pathways of care, where they are available. The decision to discharge patients from intervention will be made by a district nurse or another experienced staff nurse.
Waiting times vary from service to service, however within district nursing you can expect the following response times:
- Urgent Community Response (UCR) referrals – these will be seen within 2 hours
- Same day referrals – these will be seen on the basis of clinical need during the day
- Non-urgent referrals - contact is usually made within two working days
- Routine referrals – these will be seen on the basis of clinical need as decided by appropriately trained staff