HEALTH service commissioners in Darlington have pledged to improve patient safety.

NHS Darlington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is responsible for planning and buying health services in the borough, is the first group in the Tees Valley to pledge its support to the national Sign Up to Safety campaign.

The campaign was launched in June last year to help develop patient safety and make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world.

So far, more than 200 NHS organisations across the country have pledged their support for the campaign.

Gill Findley, director of nursing at Darlington CCG, said: “By signing up to Sign up to Safety, we are promising all patients in Darlington that our safety improvement plan will reduce harm in the NHS over the next three years.

“We will achieve this by listening to patients, carers and staff, and learning from what they say, so that we can bring improvements to ensure patients get harm free care every time, everywhere.”

As part of the initiative, Ms Findley will represent the Durham and Darlington CCGs at a regional patient safety collaborative that is being set up by the Academic Health Science Network.

By signing up to the campaign, Darlington CCG have committed to work towards five pledges: put safety first; continually learn; honesty; collaborate and support.