Facilities Services
About Our Services
Facilities Management combines various operational functions, all dedicated to providing essential support services to County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, and helping to deliver safe, clean, comfortable, and efficient environments for our patients, visitors, and healthcare professionals.
Our multi-award winning Facilities Management teams play a crucial role in defining the perception of our facilities, by ensuring they are healthy, well-maintained, and welcoming. We are passionate about everything we do and we continually aim for excellence, putting our patients and visitors first and last.
Working around the clock, with some of our staff working shifts, we deliver a wide range of dynamic of reactive operational services, which are capable of evolving to meet ever-changing needs.
Our Facilities teams provide the following essential functions – select a service to find out more:
Car Parking
Our Car Parking and Security team help to manage the safety of all service users on our sites, and oversee the provision of car parking facilities for our patients, visitors, and staff.
Catering Services (Patient and Retail)
Our Catering team captures the whole spectrum of catering opportunities, including back-of-house, retail catering and ward hostesses, collectively responsible for providing a high quality, appetising, and nutritious food offering to patients, visitors, and staff.
Central Equipment Loan Library (CELL)
The CELL team manages an inventory of commonly used medical devices and equipment including pressure relieving mattresses and seat cushions, infusion pumps, syringe drivers, suction pumps, and vital signs monitors.
Centralised Endoscopy Decontamination Department (CEDD)
Our brand new Endoscopy Decontamination Department which provides a centralised in-house service responsible for carrying out the decontamination of flexible endoscopes (instruments used to examine the interior of the body) used at all County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust acute sites at Darlington Memorial Hospital and University Hospital of North Durham plus our centre for planned care at Bishop Auckland Hospital.
Contract, Performance, and Compliance
Our Contract and Performance team provides services to our Clients as well as support to our operational teams with an agile and functional approach to contract management, while our Compliance Team works collaboratively within all areas of the Company by collating evidence provided by all services both at a local and national level.
Domestics
Our Domestic teams are responsible for the cleanliness of all areas, wards and departments, working to the highest standards to keep them clean, helping to prevent the risk of infection from spreading, and making them welcoming places for our patients to be treated and for healthcare professionals to work.
Linen
Our Linen Services team are responsible for ensuring our departments have sufficient stocks of clean linen (such as sheets and towels for patients), which is another crucial factor in minimising the potential spread of healthcare infections.
Portering and Transport
Our Portering teams provide efficient and effective logistical support across the entire organisation, including all of our clinical and non-clinical services. Often the ‘face’ of our support services, porters have extensive first-hand contact with our staff, patients and visitors. Our Transport team operate on the region’s roads day and night supporting all County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust sites, and making sure that vital equipment, materials, supplies and services are where they need to be, at the right time.
Security
Our Car Parking and Security team help to manage the safety of all service users on our sites, and oversee the provision of car parking facilities for our patients, visitors, and staff.
Sterile Services Department (SSD)
Our Sterile Services Department provides a 24/7 service decontaminating and sterilising surgical instruments that are used in the Operating Theatres, Clinics, and Wards, and is an essential support function to enable the day to day running of the Trust’s surgical activities.
Telecommunications (Switchboard) and Helpdesk
Our Switchboard team are often the first point of contact for anyone who phones one of our hospitals or our Trust. Our operators ensure that callers are passed effectively to the correct person or department.
Waste Management
Healthcare is a 24/7/365 activity and with our hospitals functioning around the clock, waste is being generated continuously. SCL offers Waste Management services that ensures the safe and efficient disposal of all types of waste generated within Trust facilities.
Wherever our staff work in Facilities Management services, their primary focus is always on excellent customer service. If you’re interested in a profession that delivers high quality essential support to our hospitals, and you enjoy practical work, there may be opportunities that suit you in our Facilities Services teams.
Key Facts
NHS Estates deliver some the most highly regulated services in the country, working in accordance with a range of statutory compliance requirements which are designed to ensure our services are suitable, sufficient, and safe.
Key Contact Details
Stu Stangroom
Director of Facilities
01325 743092
