HEALTH and social care officials have joined forces to produce a winter plan, designed to protect elderly and vulnerable people in Darlington.

The proposals have been put in place in a bid to prevent illness among the town's 101,000 population placing enormous pressure on the local health system.

The combination of mild winters and forward planning has avoided putting seasonal strains on the system for the past three years.

But Darlington Primary Care Trust, the town's social services and Darlington Memorial Hospital are preparing for the worse case scenario this year with a winter plan comprising extra staff and resources.

The trust's assistant director of health improvement, Paul Davison, said: "Having a winter plan in place helped to ensure that demand on services remained manageable last winter. But we can't afford to be complacent so action has been taken again this year to maintain these standards."

The plan includes steps to prevent people from succumbing to one of the most dangerous diseases, influenza.

The district nursing team has spent the past few months offering vulnerable people flu vaccinations.

Under the plan, 15 intermediate care beds and ten transitional care beds have been commisioned to support people outside hospital.

Extra therapy, nursing and care management staff are being employed to support people in their own homes.

Crisis resolution teams for people with physical and mental health illnesses have been introduced.

In addition, trust managers will be on call during the Christmas holidays; and opening times for general practitioners'' surgeries over the Christmas and New Year period will be published.

There will also be out-of-hours cover for dentistry, pharmacy, emergency contraception and social services.

Extra staff will be available to make assessments on patients in an effort to speed up hospital discharges, and there will be district nursing support for nursing and residential homes.

Mr Davison said: "Robust local arrangements are now in place to ensure that services run as smoothly as possible. By pulling together we hope to avoid the crisis winter can often bring."