I know from speaking to patients and local people that lots of you are worried about waiting times for treatment. In this month’s newsletter I wanted to update you on our position, and share the significant progress we’ve made in the past year. I also wanted to tell you about some of the things we are doing to recover our waiting lists, as well as some of the innovative work we are doing in Devon that sets us apart from our peers across the NHS.

I’d like to start by recognising the impact of longer waiting times on our patients and their family and friends, as well as our colleagues who are working to give patients the best possible care. For every person who is waiting too long, and anyone who is feeling anxious or in pain, I’m truly sorry.

We’ve made incredible progress over the past year, but we know we need to do more and this is why recovering our waiting lists is a priority for us. We are monitoring our progress in detail at every meeting of the Board of Directors, we have teams closely reviewing our longest waiting patients, and all our staff are working hard to see our patients as quickly as possible.

We have made significant progress in reducing our elective and cancer waiting lists, and in seeing patients more quickly in our urgent and emergency care pathways, including in the community. In 2023/24 we:

• were recognised as one of the fastest improving trusts in England for reducing elective waiting times
• provided over a million outpatient appointments and nearly 87,000 patients came in for a procedure and went home the same day
• reduced the number of cancer patients waiting longer than 62 days for treatments to 5% - within a year we had 101 fewer patients waiting this long
• nearly halved the number of patients waiting for 52 weeks to start treatment, 3401 fewer patients than in March 2023
• supported all patients who had waited 104 weeks or more to start treatment – now there are no patients waiting this long
• responded within two hours in more than 90% of cases needing urgent care response in the community
• saw 80% of people in our emergency departments within four hours (March)
• were in the top 10 of most-improved health trusts in the country for urgent emergency care waiting time

We know people are still waiting too long and some of our most challenging waiting lists are in orthopaedics and cardiology services. We are already carrying out significant work to improve waiting times in these specialties, and we have made great progress in ophthalmology, which was one of our most challenging waiting lists a year ago. We will continue our efforts in the coming year.

We are focusing on two main areas of work to reduce waiting times. The first is to create additional capacity to care for patients, and further on in this newsletter you’ll hear about some of the projects we’ve been working on. Our NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter is the largest project and is a truly collaborative approach to providing care. The hospital provides a range of specialist services and welcomes patients from across Devon. It hosts highly skilled staff who are using innovative ways to reduce waiting lists and are providing excellent patient care.

We are also reducing waiting times through innovation – doing things differently and using technology to improve efficiency. Again, there are lots of examples below to show you what we’re doing now and our plans for the future. For our patients, one of the best things you can do right now is sign up to MY CARE and join the 135,000 people already using it to view their hospital letters, test results, and get ready for appointments. We have plans to do much more with MY CARE, which will give you greater control of your health and help us make sure we’re maximising the number of appointments we provide.

There is much more work to do, and as we continue into 2024/25 in a changing national context we will move forward with momentum from what we achieved together last year. We await guidance from the new Government about their priorities. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to seeing some of our projects complete, and in a year’s time I hope I can write to you with some positive news.

Read the full August stakeholder newsletter here.

Thank you.

Sam Higginson, Chief Executive Officer at the Royal Devon