The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is very proud to have seen an increase on its previous scores in the most recent national inpatient survey. The Trust is placed second in the top 10 acute and combined hospital Trusts’ over all ranking.

The Royal Devon ranks in the top 20% of trusts for 33 questions out of a total of 55.

The survey, conducted in 2023 by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), saw the Royal Devon increase its average score to 78.9%.  The Trust received improved scores of more than 5% in four questions, and saw a change of less than 5% in 43 questions. The Trust did not see any scores that were worse by 5% or more.

Last year the Royal Devon was recognised as one of the most improved Trusts for how they recovered waiting lists and they are particularly pleased to see this reflected in the survey results, with the length of time spent by patients on waiting lists has improved compared to 2022. The length of time to wait for a bed once admitted to hospital also improved.

Questions where the Trust did particularly well include:

• Did you have confidence in the doctors treating you (93%)
• Did you feel you were treated with respect and dignity (91.2%)
• Did you feel you were treated with kindness and compassion (89.7%)

Carolyn Mills, Chief Nursing Officer at the Royal Devon, said: “These results reflect the care and dedication our teams put in to looking after our patients. It is very gratifying to see that hard work and compassion and acknowledged in the comments from patients.

“We will now look at these results in details to identify areas when we can improve further.”

Other areas of improvements included discharge and communication on discharge and responders said that there were enough nurses to care for them whilst they were in hospital.

In total, 547 people took part in the survey, a response rate of 46%. The Trust are looking at how to encourage greater participation in the survey to help drive further learning.

You can read the full survey results on the Care Quality Commission website