It is managed by the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.

The hospital was procured under a Private Finance Initiative ('PFI') contract, to replace outdated facilitates at the Pierremont Unit and the Beaumont Ward at Darlington Memorial Hospital and at the Gables Unit in Sedgefield, in 2002.

[1] It was built at a cost of £16 million and was officially opened by Alan Milburn, Minister for the Cabinet Office, in December 2004.

[2] At the time of opening the new facility had 24 rooms for older people, 60 bedrooms for acute adult patients and 10 intensive care beds.

[1] In 2009 the Trust decided to exercise a break clause in the contract allowing it to terminate the contract early by paying £18 million up front.