HEALTH and social care professionals in Darlington are bucking the national trend by reducing the number of emergency admissions to hospital.

Since a new, multi-disciplinary approach to managing frail elderly people and patients who are frequent attenders was introduced in Darlington last October the apparently irresistible rise in emergency admissions seen across the rest of the country has been halted and then reversed.

Latest figures show that Darlington Memorial Hospital saw the number of patients admitted as an emergency fall by 1.9 per cent between 2013 and 2014.

The number admitted as an emergency fell by 259 from 13,586 in 2013 to 13,327 in 2014 – putting Darlington in first place in the North-East and Cumbria region.

By contrast, in some areas – such as North Tyneside – the number of emergency admissions jumped during the same period by 6,102, a rise of 27.3 per cent.

Dr Andrea Jones, chairwoman of NHS Darlington Clinical Commissioning Group, said the positive signs were “very encouraging” and it was expected that Darlington would comfortably exceed the target of a 3.5 per cent reduction during 2015.

The success reflects the close partnership working of the CCG, County Durham and Darlington Trust, Darlington Borough Council, Tees, Esk, Wear Valleys mental health trust and – for the first time - the voluntary sector.

Representatives from voluntary sector organisations such as Age UK, Mind and DAD (Darlington on Disability) have been sitting in on regular GP practice meetings to identify patients who might benefit from greater support in their own homes and then sending out staff or volunteers to assist.

At the same time the CCG has stepped up support for residential nursing homes in Darlington.

In addition to GPs doing regular rounds at homes, senior nurses known as community matrons have been contacting patients giving concern on a daily basis.

Dr Jones paid tribute to district nurses who have agreed to respond to calls from nursing homes out-of-hours to help prevent inappropriate admissions.

“We are also having more contact with next-of-kin to determine how very elderly frail residents should be managed in the event of a crisis,” she added.

The CCG is now considering how they can build on the success so far.

This could involve deploying more GPs in the community and adding physiotherapists to front line health workers.

Dr Jones said another positive development has been an increase in care packages to allow elderly patients to stay in their own homes rather than being admitted to a care home.