We were delighted to welcome Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins to North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) today to learn about our plans to upgrade our estate and improve patient care.

Victoria was shown our operating theatres and intensive care unit, and heard more about how we intend to redevelop these spaces as part of the Our Future Hospital (OFH) programme.

OFH was set up in response to NDDH’s inclusion in the Government’s New Hospital Programme. Colleagues shared the project’s progress to date, with works already underway on a new administration facility to support wider recruitment plans.

We also showed the Secretary of State how we used national funding over winter 2023/24 to improve our urgent care performance through increasing bed numbers and reshaping our medical bed space, and discussed our plans to develop this further into an acute care floor.

As part of the visit, we discussed how we’re embracing digital technologies – such as electronic patient records and virtual wards – to improve the delivery of care to our remote rural and coastal communities.

Victoria Atkins was joined on the visit by our Chief Executive Officer, Sam Higginson, our Chair, Dame Shan Morgan, and North Devon MP Selaine Saxby. 

As well as highlighting plans to upgrade our services, the visit also provided an opportunity for staff and patients to share their experiences of care at the hospital.

Sam Higginson, Chief Executive Officer at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I was delighted to welcome the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to our hospital. It was wonderful to showcase the work of our talented colleagues, and to share how important investment is helping us to begin upgrading our estate, so that we can deliver the best possible care for local people, now and in the future.”

Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon, said: “It was great to welcome the Secretary of State to North Devon to see first hand the work that is being done to prepare our hospital for the huge investment over the next ten years. She was also able to see the great work already under at the new administration centre and how the Trust is progressing with stage one of the New Hospitals Programme, staff accommodation.”

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Victoria Atkins, said: “It was a privilege to meet staff and patients here at North Devon District Hospital, and to see for myself the exciting progress being made in upgrading the estate as part of the government’s New Hospital Programme.

“I was hugely impressed by the incredible dedication of staff working in the hospital’s intensive care unit and operating theatres, and by the compassion and care they show their patients day in, day out.

“The Trust’s plans for upgrading these areas as part of its Our Future Hospital programme will provide staff with state-of-the-art facilities that will support them in continuing to deliver world-class care to patients from across North Devon for many years to come.”