\n New figures show the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) is outperforming the national average, but has declined over the last seven months.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the latest NHS data, as of April 2025, 67.8 per cent\u00a0of patients referred to County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust were seen within 18 weeks.\n<\/p>\n
\n While this marks a decline from 69.3 per cent\u00a0in November 2024, the Trust still ranks\u00a0above the England-wide average of 59.7 per cent.\n<\/p>\n
\n Darlington Memorial Hospital (Image: NORTHERN ECHO) Nationally, the NHS have set a target of 92 per cent\u00a0of patients should be treated within 18 weeks; a standard that hasn\u2019t been met since 2015.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the short term, the government is aiming for a more modest 65 per cent\u00a0by March 2026.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, NHS England has tasked each trust with hitting specific benchmarks based on their November 2024 baseline.\n<\/p>\n
\n In Darlington and County Durham,\u00a0that means reaching 74.3 per cent\u00a0by March 2026; a target that places the Trust in the higher performance tier.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a statement, a spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said: \u201cWe are committed to improving access to care and ensuring patients have a positive experience.\n<\/p>\n
\n “While the Trust is currently performing above the national average, we recognise the importance of meeting the 74.3 per cent\u00a0target and are working hard to achieve this across the 2025\/26 operating year.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n A Darlington Memorial Hospital NHS sign (Image: NORTHERN ECHO) The Trust also highlighted the balancing act it faces in prioritising patients with urgent and complex needs while still addressing long waits for routine elective care.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe continue to prioritise patients based on clinical need, balancing urgent and emergency care, cancer treatment and elective care for those waiting beyond national standards,\u201d the spokesperson added.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re making the most of our clinic and theatre space and making sure people see the right specialist first to help reduce delays.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n To support patients awaiting surgery, CDDFT say it\u00a0has launched its \u201cWaiting Well\u201d programme, providing mental and physical health resources to help patients prepare for treatment.\n<\/p>\n
\n The figures for other North East trusts reveal a mixed landscape, but most are making slow progress toward their own March 2026 targets.\n<\/p>\n
\n Read more:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust reported a small uptick, moving from 60 per cent\u00a0in November 2024 to 61 per cent\u00a0in April 2025.\n<\/p>\n \n North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust is faring better, improving from 71.5 per cent\u00a0to 73.8 per cent\u00a0during the same period.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, the Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust has seen one of the most notable improvements, climbing from 68.4 per cent\u00a0to 72.6 per cent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New figures show the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) is outperforming the national average, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-229027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114777462149835310","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}