TRAINING schemes to give midwives in County Durham some of the same skills as junior doctors have been praised by national inspectors.

The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) gave special mention to the midwife training in its assessment of the South Durham Health Care NHS Trust, which covers Darlington and Bishop Auckland General Hospitals.

The training allows midwives throughout the area to carry out some medical procedures, previously only carried out by junior doctors.

The CHI report also praised the paediatrics department which speaks to young patients to get new ideas about how the service should be run.

The main concern of the inspectors was the orthopaedic department which was criticised for not working with other departments in the hospitals.

Concern was also expressed over the variation in mortality rates between emergency and non-emergency cases dealt with by the orthopaedic team.

Peter Homa, CHI chief executive, said: "The trust has demonstrated examples of good practice, for example those in maternity services and patient and public involvement.

"It does, however, need to resolve the continuing difficulties found on orthopedics while also focusing attention on areas of work that still need improvement.

"The trust is producing an action plan in response to our report and its implementation will see the quality of patient care improve further."

Part of the CHI assessment was based on patients' comments and the trust has welcomed the final report.

John Saxby, chief executive of the trust, said: "The review was constructive in its comments about services provided in the trust and will help reinforce and spread best practice in clinical services."