THE efforts of hospital staff to improve services in Darlington and South Durham have been rewarded at a prize giving ceremony.

The awards have been established by the County Durham and Darlington Hospitals Trust to publicly recognise staff who have made an exceptional contribution to the health service. They were presented at a ceremony in Bishop Auckland Town Hall.

Trust chairwoman Angela Ballatti, who presented the awards, said: "We wanted to publicly acknowledge the work and effort that our staff put into improving the service that they provide and in many cases go above and beyond the call of duty.

"The success of the trust over the past few years has been based on the outstanding effort and commitment of all our staff and these awards are to recognise such staff contributions."

Awards were presented to staff who had achieved degrees, NVQs or undertaken extra courses in care to improve the trust's standards.

The Above and Beyond the Call of Duty awards were given to ten people nominated by their managers.

The winners of the awards were: Helen Mead, Debbie Marr, Jane Jenkinson, Janette Vincent, Frank Patrick, Cecilia Bulmer, Julie Bowes, Susan Nelson, Karen Dickinson and Debra Gibson.