The Royal Devon has been successful in securing a £20m commitment from NHS England to create a Centre of Excellence for day surgery for children and adults at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (Heavitree). Final funding will be received following business case approval by the Trust Board and NHSE.

The surgical hub will include new theatres and recovery space, as well as repurposing existing theatre estate. This is part of a plan to transform our surgical services into modern, flexible environments that improve patient outcomes and experience, and provide great working environments and exciting careers for our colleagues.  

NHS England has made extra capital funding available for schemes that will help NHS trusts reduce waiting lists, drive productivity and recover performance to pre-pandemic levels. National funding means we can continue to invest in our services for the long-term, helping us to improve productivity and efficiency to treat the maximum number of patients for the funding we receive.

Chris Tidman, Deputy Chief Executive, said: "We are really pleased to have secured this funding, which will allow us to build a dedicated, central hub to help us return to national waiting time standards over time. 

"This will be the next big step for our theatres as we develop our estate to deliver the NHS 10 Year Plan."

Developing the hub will be a significant programme of work over the next 12 months. We will be talking to staff and patients about how the new dedicated multispecialty space will support our theatre space across our sites. 

The surgical hub is just one of the ways we are investing in our facilities and upgrading our spaces to deliver excellent patient facilities and a great place to work for our colleagues, using external funding. 

Other projects that are either underway or where funding commitments have been given include:

• new single MRI suite at North Devon District Hospital
• new hybrid theatre at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (Wonford)
• creating a new community diagnostic centre (CDC) in Bideford and expanding the CDC at the Nightingale Hospital Exeter with three additional scanners
• delivering enhanced Same-Day Emergency Care facilities at both Exeter and Barnstaple
• a new NIHR research hub in North Devon
• new hospital residences at North Devon District Hospital as part of the Our Future Hospital Programme.

These schemes are part of a programme of investment totalling over £80m over the next two to three years to modernise our estate, so that we can deliver high-quality and efficient care to our patients.