This Order amends the Order which established the North Durham Acute Hospitals National Health Service Trust to alter the purpose for which the trust has been established and to amend its functions. (The trust has, in exercise of its existing functions, assumed responsibility for the ownership and management of the Dryburn Hospital, Durham and associated hospitals, previously managed by the former North Durham Health Authority.)

This Order confers on the trust the purpose specified in section 5(1)(b) of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990—to provide and manage hospitals or other establishments or facilities—and amends the trust’s functions so that it is no longer required to own the premises at which it is to provide hospital accommodation and services.