Our future hospital Northern Devon
North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) is one of 40 hospitals included in the Government’s New Hospital Programme (NHP) and was confirmed as a priority for investment in 2020.
The Government’s aim through the NHP is to provide better care for patients, an improved working environment for staff and help the NHS reach its net zero carbon initiation, and the Trust is working closely with the central NHP team on the delivery plans for the hospital.
NDDH is the most remote acute hospital in mainland England, many of its building are over 50 years old which can result in challenges delivering care. This investment has the potential to help us futureproof our acute hospital with facilities capable of providing modern and digitally connected care to meet the healthcare needs of the local population
Our Future Hospital Northern Devon is the Trust programme set up in response to this opportunity.
The overarching aim of the Our Future Hospital Northern Devon programme:
Investing in our local hospital to provide modern, connected care for patients, an improved working environment for staff and ensuring high quality emergency and specialist facilities for Northern Devon - now and in the future
For more information on the New Hospital Programme, visit www.gov.uk/ournhsbuildings
Our Business Case Journey
Due to the nature of the investment opportunity, the Trust is following a formal business case process which consists of three main phases: the Strategic Outline Case (SOC), Outline Business Case (OBC) and Full Business Case (FBC).
Strategic Outline Case
The first stage of a business case process is creating a Strategic Outline Case (SOC).
The OFH team has now developed its SOC which provides an overview of the vision for the programme and the plans for the hospital redevelopment.
The SOC has focused on three main phases:
Phase One – provision of new on-site staff accommodation
Phase Two – creation of a new block delivering a range of acute care services
Phase Three – refurbishment of the main tower to deliver all future in-patient ward-based accommodation requirements
The SOC has been approved by Trust Board and reviewed against the fundamental criteria by our regional NHSEI team. The next stage will be discussion of the Strategic Outline Case with the DHSC and NHS EI New Hospital Programme team and subsequent approval
In May 2022 the Trust received confirmation of early stage funding to support the development and planning for the next stage of the programme.
This includes a review of our on-site accommodation and staff experience, to support the attraction, recruitment and retention of staff and ensure the Trust continues to be a great place to work.
Once the SOC is approved at national level the programme can move into the OBC stage, this will involve a more in-depth review of the options for the programme’s preferred way forward.
It is anticipated that the final build will take place in the latter half of the decade.
Our Five Ambitions
The OFH programme is an opportunity to look beyond our current care delivery and the programme’s ambitions reflect the hospital’s need to adapt to a growing population, changing lifestyles and technological development
Get Involved
Our Five Ambitions – what do they mean to you?
This is an exciting opportunity to future-proof our healthcare services in Northern Devon and it is really important that our patients, staff, local community and stakeholders are involved in setting our shared ambitions. We want to know what our five ambitions mean to you.
You can share your comments by using the link below: