Latest updates
August 2023 - National New Hospital Programme roadshow visits NDDH
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 the Trust’s ambitions for futureproofing healthcare in North Devon as part of the programme.
Following the visit Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care commented: “Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome to North Devon. It was great to be able to visit to understand more about the hospital and local area.
“I was particularly struck by the passion shown by the staff I met, which was on a whole other level and the affection patients and the local community have for the hospital and its staff.
“I was impressed with what I saw on the tour including the new discharge hub which is already making a big difference to patients and shows how creative the team are with the space they have.”
During the visit Lord Markham and his team provided an overview of the NHP including how a standardised build would be approached and the potential benefits they hope to realise as well as what new national requirements will look like.
In May Steve Barclay, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced that the Government has set aside a significant envelope of more than £20bn for the programme, with continuous investment beyond 2030.
He confirmed that the Government remains committed to NDDH as part of the programme in cohort 4, and indicated that we can progress with phase 1 of its scheme, to develop new staff accommodation and to start enabling works to the hospital site.
Dame Shan Morgan, Chair of the Royal Devon welcomed Lord Markham to NDDH and joined him in the conversations with patients, staff and stakeholders. She said: “We are hugely positive that the Government are committed to investing in the future of NDDH so it can continue to offer high quality care to the people of North Devon in the years to come. The early investment in our staff accommodation is a significant first step, helping us in our ambitions to be a great place to work.
“We’d like to thank Lord Markham and the NHP team for visiting NDDH to learn more about our scheme and the challenges we face locally.”
The Royal Devon will work closely with the NHP team over the next few months to consider the options available following the increase in funding announced by Steve Barclay in May.
Selaine Saxby, Member of Parliament for North Devon said: “I was delighted to welcome Lord Markham and his ministerial team to our hospital, and I warmly welcome the funding to ensure keyworker housing is rapidly progressed. The hospital team do a fantastic job with the facilities available, but to retain the best health teams we need to have infrastructure that matches.
The highest priority at this time is building better housing, very rapidly, so we can recruit the much needed, additional staff to North Devon. Housing remains a critical issue for far too many people in North Devon and securing housing for our healthcare workers is vital to secure the future of the hospital.
The plans for the new hospital itself are still evolving which will deliver for the local population long into the future and our hospital team here have an exceptional record of delivering infrastructure projects to a very high standard on time and on budget. I very much hope that this project with now progress at pace and I will continue to work with all involved, as needed, to ensure we can deliver our future hospital here in North Devon.”
Picture shows NDDH tour as part of the visit.
Left to right picture shows: Dame Shan Morgan, Royal Devon Chair; Adrian Harris, Royal Devon Chief Medical Officer; Lord Nick Markham; Selaine Saxby MP; Karen Davies, Royal Devon Medical Director – Northern services; Heather Brazier, Royal Devon Director of Operations – Northern services; Marsh Pullen, Royal Devon Our Future Hospital Capital Projects Manager.
May 2023 - update from Government about the New Hospital Programme
May 2023 - update from Government about the New Hospital Programme
The Government provided an update in Parliament about the national New Hospital Programme at the end of May.
Steve Barclay, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced that the Government has set aside a significant envelope of more than £20bn for the programme, with continuous investment beyond 2030.
He confirmed that the Government remains committed to North Devon District Hospital as part of the programme, and indicated that we can progress with phase 1 of our scheme, to develop new staff accommodation and to start enabling works to the hospital site.
We welcome this announcement and are delighted that there is an ambitious plan for rebuilding NDDH so that it can continue to offer high quality care to the people of North Devon in the decades to come. We are also pleased about the commitment to early investment to rebuild our staff accommodation, which is hugely important in supporting our ambitions to be a great place to work, so that we can recruit and retain the very best people.
We look forward to working closely with the national programme team to learn more about when and how we can progress our scheme, and we will keep you updated when we know more.
May 2022 - Our Future Hospital receives funding for next steps
The Our Future Hospital team are pleased to share the confirmation of funding from the national New Hospital Programme (NHP) to support the next steps of the work we are undertaking to redevelop North Devon District Hospital (NDDH).
This means the Our Future Hospital programme team, who are leading this work, can continue to develop our plans for the first phase of the programme.
This includes a review of our on-site accommodation for clinical staff. A detailed survey of the NDDH estate has highlighted the ageing condition of the current buildings, which are more than 40 years old.
Plans to rebuild the accommodation to provide new, fit-for purpose facilities were included as part of the programme’s ‘Strategic Outline Case’.
This was the first formal document of a series that we will have to submit to the national programme, and outlines our vision for a new NDDH which has facilities capable of providing modern and digitally connected care to meet the healthcare needs of the local population. As part of this, the new staff accommodation will support the Royal Devon’s aims to attract staff and become a great place to work.
The OFH team is now reviewing its plans for phase one and developing options within the funding available. We are also progressing our work to develop our plans for additional phases and this includes preparing for the next stage of the journey towards national approval.
April 2022 - NDDH Accessibility Survey
The Our Future Hospital Programme recently ran a survey in the local community looking at the accessibility of North Devon District Hospital (NDDH), its services and facilities. As the programme is an opportunity to redevelop the acute hospital site, the survey was designed to help highlight areas that patients and visitors considered open for improvement.
Over 500 surveys were completed, with more than 1000 comments and suggestions as to how we can improve our hospital.
We had lots of feedback on the following themes:
- parking, in particular lack of disabled parking
- congestion and lack of seating areas at our main entrance drop-off area
- lack of seating around the hospital
- general signage – including suggestions for pictorial and colour-coded signage – to help with navigation on site.
This feedback will be used to influence how we develop the hospital site and you can find out more about the survey and its results here: OFH-Accessibility-survey-feedback
March 2022 - New CT scanning suite paves the way for the Trust’s Our Future Hospital programme
Patients in North Devon now have access to some of the very latest diagnostic equipment in the UK. Last summer, two new CT (computed tomography) scanners opened at North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) in Barnstaple. A new scanning suite was built as part of this.
Dr Sarah Johnson, Consultant Radiologist and Associate Medical Director at Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “I am absolutely thrilled that both scanners are now up and running, which will help us provide better and quicker care to our patients.
“Our team have done a fantastic job to create an environment that supports an excellent patient experience. Some people can feel nervous or anxious about having a CT scan, and the team have made the space feel light and airy, and as welcoming as possible.”
What’s next for NDDH?
The new scanning suite is a great example of the quality of work that the Trust is hoping to do on a wider scale across NDDH through being included in the Government’s New Hospital Programme. This is a strategic long-term programme of investment to ensure our healthcare system, and its staff, has the world-class facilities it needs for the future.
NDDH is one of 40 hospitals selected for investment, and Zahara Hyde, Our Future Hospital Programme Director, said: “The Trust’s Our Future Hospital programme team is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and Improvement to develop plans to develop new facilities and modernise areas of the existing hospital to support the delivery of fit for future services, providing right care in the right place for our local population.”
Following business case approval later this year, works to the hospital will be scheduled for completion in the latter half of the decade.
So what could we look forward to? Highlights of the new CT scanning suite include:
- Facilities developed to the highest specification
- Bright, light modern spaces
- An environment designed with patient experience and patient flow in mind
- Improved working areas for staff
State of the art CT scanning equipment
Improved working areas
Bright new CT scanning suite reception
November 2021 - Help us to shape the future of North Devon District Hospital by taking part in an accessibility survey
North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) has been chosen for major investment as part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme aimed at providing better care for patients and improved working environments for staff.
This is an incredible opportunity to redevelop the existing hospital site to ensure it meets the needs of our local community.
Previous engagement has highlighted the importance of accessibility within the hospital, and the Our Future Hospital team is interested in finding out more about patient, carer and visitor experiences of access to the hospital, its services and facilities.
If you would like to help shape the future of the hospital and the development of the site and its buildings to the best they can be, please take part in our short survey and share with your networks.
This survey is now closed, however you can still share your views and experiences on the accessibility of NDDH and its services – whether patient focused or personal by emailing: ndht.ourfuturehospital@nhs.net
July 2021 - Our Future Hospital programme reaches first milestone
Our response to being included in the Government’s New Hospital Programme – Our Future Hospital – has reached a really important milestone.
The ‘Strategic Outline Case’ or ‘SOC’ – a formal document which outlines our ambitions and opportunities for redeveloping the North Devon District Hospital site – has been supported by the joint Trust Board. The SOC will now be shared with our colleagues at NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI), as well as the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC).
To support the development of the SOC, we’ve engaged with staff, patients, partners and our community in a number of ways, including meetings, staff drop-ins and updates through our newsletter and on social media. This included a survey earlier this year, where we asked for views on the future of healthcare. More than 500 patients, public and staff responded.
The next stage of the programme will be to look at the work done so far in more detail and refine our plans for redeveloping NDDH. This work will be pulled together into another formal document – the Outline Business Case (OBC). We will be coming out to talk to people again during this phase and will keep you updated about engagement opportunities.
In the meantime, please continue to let us know what you think of our five ambitions for the programme.
February 2021 - What does the future of healthcare in Northern Devon look like to you?
(Please note this survey has now closed)
As patients and residents in the local community, Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust (NDHT) is inviting you to have your say on the future of healthcare in North Devon and Torridge by completing the Our Future Hospital survey.
Our Future Hospital is the Trust’s response to North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) being selected as one of 40 hospitals included in the Government’s New Hospital Programme (NHP) formerly HIP2.
This is an important vote of commitment for our community and represents an incredible opportunity to bid for new investment to redevelop NDDH and modernise our buildings and technology.
We are working with staff and clinicians across the Trust and Devon healthcare system to develop our approach to future care – and we need your help.
It’s really important that our local community and are involved in setting our shared ambitions and we want to find out more about what the future of healthcare in Northern Devon looks like to you.
The Our Future Hospital survey is an opportunity to share your views and help shape healthcare services for your community in the future.