The County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has been given planning permission for a new emergency centre, but is struggling to scrape together the £23 million needed to build the centre. The new emergency centre will replace the existing A&E centre, as the pressure increases with more admissions. The existing centre at University Hospital of North Durham was built in 2001 and could cope with 30,000 admissions per year, however admissions have doubled since then. For example, between February 2016 and January 2017, there were 70,151 attendances at the emergency apartment (approximately 192 patients per day).
Full story in the Northern Echo, 22 July 2019