Changes proposed to emergency care

At present, patients in Darlington who have an urgent medical problem at weekends and evenings will be seen by doctors or nurses from private health provider Prime Care.

But from November 1, new arrangements are expected to be in place which will see the return of some NHS GPs working at weekends and evenings.

The switch back to out-of-hours care provided by NHS doctors and nurses is part of reorganisation designed to provide more accessible health care for the town's population.

Nationally, GPs voted overwhelmingly to opt out of providing out-of-hours care several years ago, but primary care trust (PCT) bosses hope that enough Darlington GPs will sign up to enable the scheme to get off the ground.

The Darlington trust's lead is likely to be followed by the neighbouring County Durham PCT and will be closely watched by others across the region.

As part of the changes the Darlington Walk-in Centre - which provides urgent care services between 8am and 8pm every day - is likely to become a 24-hour, seven days a week hub for out-of-hours NHS services.

The King Street centre is expected to handle calls through the night from patients and act as a base for NHS doctors, specialist care practitioners and nurses.

Brian Key, director of performance management with Darlington PCT, said GPs would be invited to provide an out-of-hours service.

This could be supplemented by salaried NHS doctors employed by the trust.

Mr Key said the trust needed to reduce the number of unnecessary referrals to Darlington Memorial Hospital of patients who could be dealt with by a GP or a primary care nurse.

Darlington PCT has to pay County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Hospital for every patient seen out-of-hours.

Mr Key said the trust wanted to get better value for money out of the Walk-in Centre, which sees more than 700 patients a week.

There are also plans to perform more minor surgery at the centre.

Darlington PCT board members are expected to support the changes today.