News

The Royal Devon is preparing for another busy winter across the county, so please help us help you and choose the right service this winter. This could mean using a minor injuries service, local pharmacy, or a GP practice. If you need urgent medical advice or reassurance, you can contact NHS 111 ...

A pioneering Research Fellow based at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Plymouth has won an award for his outstanding contribution to respiratory research and dedication to patient involvement.

Dr Joseph Lanario, who is a key member of the Sev...

An innovative project, aimed at minimising the carbon footprint associated with anaesthetic gases in healthcare, won the prestigious Towards Net Zero award at the 2023 HSJ Awards.

Anaesthetic gases are used in many medical procedures such as major operations and surgery, and have a negativ...

We are developing a new Patient Communications Policy and we’re asking for feedback from patients to help us shape it.

Good communication is fundamental to good quality care and patient experience. The NHS also has a legal duty to communicate in an accessible and inclusive way. Our policy ...

The Royal Devon is delighted to become the host organisation for the South West Peninsula’s Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN).

12 new Regional Research Delivery Networks (RRDNs) will be hosted by NHS organisations across the country, as part of a new NIHR Research Delivery Network ...

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Exeter are set to open a new centre for healthcare technology in the South West, thanks to national funding. 

The new HealthTech Research Centre (HRC) will be one of 14 centres across the UK. It has been made ...

The first cohorts of BSc Nursing students based at Petroc in Barnstaple have officially graduated in a ceremony held at the Guildhall in Barnstaple on Thursday 19 October 2023.

Three groups of BSc Adult Nursing students and three of FdSc Nursing Associate Degree Apprenticeship students gra...

The charity Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis with the Royal Devon Interstitial Lung Disease team is hosting an online event on Thursday 30 November to discuss the condition and help explain the medical pathways involved in treating it.

This free event runs from 10am to 3.30pm and is aimed at ...

South Molton Eye Centre has marked the first six months of treating patients in Northern Devon since its opening in April. Now the £1.4m facility is looking at ways of boosting the numbers of patients it treats.

The centre was developed at the former renal unit at South Molton Community Ho...

The South West Ambulatory Orthopaedic Centre (SWAOC) has reached another major milestone in its ground-breaking work to develop innovative new orthopaedic pathways, deliver exceptional patient care, and help reduce waiting times in the region.

As well as offering operations for hips, knees...

A generous donation from the League of Friends of Exmouth Hospital has allowed a number of refurbishment projects to take place, meaning the services provided there by the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust can now better serve the community.

The League of Friends kindl...

‘BReast CAncer Genes and Me’ is a digital patient empowerment project that’s set to transform the experience of people with a diagnosis of breast cancer that might have implications on other family members.

The project introduces the concept of genetic testing for breast cancer in an acces...

The Trust is delighted to announce the appointment of Sam Higginson as our chief executive officer (CEO), subject to completing pre-employment checks. Sam joins us on 22 January 2024.

Sam brings extensive experience to the role, having worked in and around the NHS for the last 20 years acr...

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Royal Devon) Acute Oncology team (Northern services), based at North Devon District Hospital, has won a prestigious national award for nursing.   

The team supports all types of cancer patients who may experienc...

We are excited to announce the shortlist for this year’s Extraordinary People Awards, after the conclusion of the first stage of judging.

We have seen examples of such extraordinary work being shared through your nominations – a huge congratulations to everyone that has now been shortliste...

We are looking for people to take part in PLACE assessments. Have you got a few hours spare in November to help us?

What is a PLACE assessment?

Patient-led assessments of the care environment (PLACE) put the patient voice at the heart of assessing and improving the ...

The MP for Tiverton and Honiton, Richard Foord, has visited Tiverton Community Hospital to see the valuable contribution it makes to delivering patient care away from an acute hospital setting.

Mr Foord was shown around the hospital by Zoe Harris, Eastern Divisional Director for Community ...

We’re delighted to welcome nine new governors (five public and four colleagues) to our council and can confirm three current governors have been re-elected, following the election held in August and September.

The results are:

Eastern constituency

• Heath...

A breakthrough initiative devised by leading experts at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been named as a finalist in the Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes 2023 Awards.

The project, spearheaded by the Exeter Monogenic Diabet...

To support local residents in North Devon to access urgent care more easily we are pleased to confirm that the Ilfracombe weekend MIU service will be continuing throughout the autumn and winter to March 2024.

Until 31 March 2024, the following will be in place:

A weekend MIU service...

A ground-breaking project led by specialists at the Royal Devon is set to revolutionise care for patients with a common type of hernia. 

Developed in close collaboration with leading healthcare professionals and patients across Europe, the European Incisional Hernia Guidelines are designed...

On Wednesday 27 September we held a Members’ Event and our formal Annual Members’ Meeting (AMM).

It was fantastic to see lots of members and governors, whether in the room or on the screen, and show you some of the exciting work our staff have been doing. You had some great questions for u...

The British Medical Association (BMA) is taking joint strike action involving consultants and junior doctors at a number of NHS trusts, including the Royal Devon, from 7am Monday 2 October to 7am Thursday 5 October.

The industrial action is a national dispute between the Government and Tra...

Earlier this month, the Centre of Excellence for Eyes (CEE) at the NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter successfully completed a cataract operation on its 1,000th patient, with one of the lowest-recorded complication rates in the world.

Since opening in 2022, the CEE has been offering low-compl...

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Royal Devon) has ranked joint second nationally for inpatient satisfaction, alongside three other acute and general combined NHS Trusts.

The findings come from the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) inpatient survey, which asked...

There is just one week left to nominate your NHS heroes in our Extraordinary People Awards! Nominations close at 11.59pm on Sunday 24 September.

Have you received extraordinary care? If you know a staff member, team or volunteer who deserves to be celebrated, all you have ...

You may have seen in the news the concerns about public buildings made from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete and the associated risks. All trusts were asked by NHS England to reassess their estates and report back.

We surveyed all of our sites in 2019 and following a reassessment, we...

We were delighted to welcome Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to North Devon District Hospital today to demonstrate how two new facilities are helping us to recover our waiting lists and improve the care we provide to patients. 

The Prime Minister was taken to our Jubilee Ward, which opened in J...

We’re pleased to confirm the featured speakers for our upcoming members’ event at Petroc College, Tiverton and online (MS Teams) on Wednesday 27 September from 1pm-6pm. All are welcome.

The Trust is working hard to recover waiting lists. In our talk and Q&A ‘How we...

Please help us to help you and your loved ones by not visiting if you are showing any symptoms of respiratory diseases (including COVID-19 and flu) or any other infections like norovirus (such as diarrhoea and vomiting).

If you have an outpatient appointment and have symptoms of a virus, p...

The British Medical Association (BMA) is taking strike action involving consultants and junior doctors at a number of NHS trusts, including the Royal Devon, as follows:

Consultants: from 7am Tuesday 19 September to 7am Th...

The national COVID-19 booster programme has been brought forward from October and will now begin on Monday 11 September.

This decision has been made by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in response to the new BA.2.86 COVID-19 variant,...

The Trust is very pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Roberts as our interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Paul joins us on 20 September and will provide valuable leadership as we begin the process to appoint a substantive CEO, which we expect to take 9-12 months.

Paul brings sign...

Local people will have the opportunity to hear about what’s happening at the Royal Devon thanks to a public event taking place at Petroc’s Tiverton campus, on Wednesday 27 September 2023, 1pm-6pm.

All are welcome - come along and find out about the latest and biggest developments first-han...

North Devon MP Selaine Saxby has visited the South Molton Eye Centre to see how patients with eye conditions in Northern Devon and Torridge will now benefit from reduced waiting times and access to state-of-the-art equipment.

Ms Saxby, who was joined on the visit by Sarah Wollaston, Chair ...

The Care Quality Commission has today published a report following inspections across medicine, surgery and diagnostics in November 2022 and a well-led inspection in May 2023.

The report for the inspection of clinical areas was published in May 2023 and an update was shared on the Trust we...

A transformational system for Whole Genome Sequencing has arrived at the NHS Exeter Genomics Laboratory, Research, Innovation, Learning & Development (RILD) building, marking a momentous moment for our research collaboration with the University of Exeter, the Exeter NIHR Biomedical Research C...

Have you received care that deserves to be celebrated? Then nominate a person or team for an Extraordinary People Award!

Nominations for our 2023 awards are open, and we welcome entries from patients, visitors and carers in the ‘Extraordinary Care’ category. You can complete a nomination f...

The British Medical Association (BMA) is taking strike action involving consultants at a number of NHS trusts, including the Royal Devon, from 7am on Thursday 24 August to 7am on Saturday 26 August.

The industrial action is a national dispute between the Government and Trades Unions about ...

Three teams from the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have been recognised in this year’s HSJ awards.

The nominees include a world-leading service that’s transforming healthcare for children with rare genetic conditions, a dynamic approach for managing equipment for c...

PRC Exeter is extremely proud to be one of five national PRCs delivering large-scale commercial trials with excellent retention rates - as shown by a national case study published by NIHR. 

Patient retention is one of the biggest challenges for clinical trials globally, yet fundamental to ...

The NHS is facing another period of significant disruption this week, with potentially thousands more appointments and procedures postponed due to the latest round of industrial action by junior doctors.

Local people and holidaymakers in Devon are being given advice on accessing health ser...

Emergency departments experienced their second busiest July ever last month, with new data published today showing 2.1 million attendances.

The new data suggests this summer is currently on track to be the busiest ever for hardworking NHS staff with 4.42 million attendances in Emergenc...

Health Minister Lord Nick Markham CBE and the national New Hospital Programme (NHP) team visited North Devon District Hospital on Wednesday 2 August to meet with colleagues, patients and stakeholders.

They toured the hospital, discussed the national vision for NHP, and learned more about t...

The British Medical Association (BMA) is taking strike action involving junior doctors at a number of NHS trusts, including the Royal Devon, from 7am on Friday 11 August to 7am on Tuesday 15 August.

The BMA has also announced that consultants have voted in favour of taking strike action to...

New and expectant mothers in North Devon will now receive care in a new dedicated and upgraded facility in Barnstaple.

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (the Royal Devon) officially opened its new Barnstaple Community Maternity Hub at Barnstaple Health Centre, on Monda...

A new pilot, which involves patients attending a short appointment for diagnostic tests which are later reviewed by a glaucoma consultant, is making it quicker for patients to get their glaucoma diagnosis.

Under the pilot, eligible patients referred to the Royal Devon with suspected glauco...

A ground-breaking service developed and delivered by colleagues across the Royal Devon in partnership with the NHS England Genomics Unit and the University of Exeter has recently been recognised at a special NHS 75 Event.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our fantastic teams, the w...

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s urgent and emergency care services have scored well in the latest national patient experience survey, published this week, with the results showing our services scoring in the highest ranks across several questions.

The Care Qual...

We're looking for 12 people to join our Council of Governors.  

If you would like to put yourself forward for the role, you will need to nominate yourself before 5pm on 2 August 2023.

Royal Devon Governors provide a direct connectio...

The NHS is bracing itself for one of the toughest strikes in its history beginning on Thursday morning, England’s top doctor has warned.

Consultant doctors and hospital-based dentists will be taking strike action from 8am on Thursday until 8am on Saturday.

Professor Sir Ste...

The British Medical Association (BMA) is taking strike action involving consultants at a number of NHS trusts, including the Royal Devon, from 7am on Thursday 20 July to 7am on Saturday 22 July.

The industrial action is a national dispute between the Government and Trades Unions about term...

Surgeons at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust are excited to be expanding the use of robotic surgery in patient care.

The Trust has two new robots thanks to national funding from NHS England and the Cancer Alliance – one at North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) and one ...

Members of the public can now nominate themselves to stand as a Public Governor candidate for the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Royal Devon Governors provide a direct connection between the Trust, the communities we serve and our partners. Governors have a wide va...

The Nightingale Hospital Exeter is celebrating after being named as a National Joint Registry (NJR) Quality Data Provider, successfully completing a national programme of local data audits.

The NRJ collects high-quality orthopaedic data in order to provide evidence to support patient safet...

After generous donations from the public, the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is very pleased to be opening a new memorial garden at the RD&E (Wonford) to serve as a place to remember those lost to COVID-19.

Dr Camilla Stokholm was a GP trainee at the RD&E du...

Major disruption caused by industrial action over the next fortnight will have a serious impact on the NHS, with services expected to face the most challenging period yet, England’s top doctor has warned today.

To ensure care continues to be available for those in life-threatening situatio...

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has today announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Suzanne Tracey is to stand down from her role having served seven years leading the Trust and its predecessors Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and Northern Devon Healthcare NHS...

It is one year since our electronic patient record, Epic, was rolled out across Northern Devon. It first went live across our Eastern services in October 2020.

For the past year we have had a Trust-wide single patient record for each of our patients, which is helping us to streamline and d...

Our NHS75 celebrations included a ceremonial tree planting at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Wonford) and North Devon District Hospital.

Carolyn Mills, Chief Nursing Officer, was honoured to invite the Right Worshipful the Lord Mayor Kevin Mitchell to plant a cherry tree at the RD&...

Almost a million more people (900,000) will become eligible for a shingles vaccination from September, the NHS announced today.

Anyone who is severely immunosuppressed and over 50 will be able to get two doses of the Shingrix vaccine - currently the vaccine is only available to those over ...

To showcase the range of rewarding and skill enhancing roles available in their community nursing team, the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation is running a series of recruitment roadshows. The next event is being held at Bideford Hospital on Saturday 15 July.

The event is aim...

The achievements of young people with learning disabilities were celebrated at an awards ceremony on Friday (30 June) after they completed an on-the-job training scheme at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital.

Project SEARCH is an innovative one-year internship programme which gives 16 to...

NHS organisations in Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly are working together to improve hospital services for local people and staff.

The NHS has been experiencing unprecedented levels of demand for services across the country and Devon is no exception.

We...

Yesterday, five colleagues from the Royal Devon attended the special service at Westminster Abbey, held to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the NHS.

Edith Chinnah, Lynsey Southern, Anne Mudzingwa, Kiera(n) Loft, and Becky Harman were nominated by the Trust to attend the event, which saw a...

When it was founded in 1948, the NHS was the first universal health system to be available to all and free at the point of delivery. The NHS now treats more than a million people a day in England.

Providers and partners nationally will be celebrating in July by showcasing the best of the N...

Scientists from Exeter Genomics Laboratory, part of the South West NHS Genomic Laboratory Hub, have been honoured by Their Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess of Wales at a very special NHS Big Tea party, marking the 75th anniversary of the NHS (Wednesday 5 July).

Dr Andy Parrish and ...

We are very excited to announce that patients who are ready to be discharged from hospital and no longer need a hospital bed will now be able to wait to go home in a dedicated discharge hub at NDDH. In honour of King Charles III, the facility is called the Coronation Suite.

The modular bui...

The British Medical Association (BMA) is taking strike action involving junior doctors at a number of NHS trusts, including the Royal Devon, from 7am on Thursday 13 July to 7am on Tuesday 18 July.

The BMA has also announced that consultants have voted in favour of taking strike action too,...

The Acute Oncology team in Northern services (pictured below) has been shortlisted for the Nursing Times Awards for the category of Team of the Year. The winner will be revealed at an event in London on October the 25.

The team consists of an advanced clinical practitioner, clinical nurse ...

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is looking for people to join the Trust’s Council of Governors by nominating themselves to be a Public Governor.

The Council of Governors plays a vitally important role by providing a direct connection between the Trust’s Board of ...

“I’ve seen the expressions on people’s faces change, from a bit miserable to really happy” – life-changing research trials new treatment approach for debilitating spinal condition

A group of patients with a painful spinal condition are benefiting from a new programme of physiotherapist-led...