How we are reducing waiting times

Reducing waiting times for patients waiting for care is a top priority.

We are doing all we can to see more patients each day. Our staff are putting on extra clinics and theatre sessions where they can.

But more and more people are needing care from our specialist clinicians. Often our patients have more complex health problems than we were seeing a few years ago. We have limited resources to manage these challenges. This means that we can’t just do more of the same.

To reduce waiting times for our patients we need longer term solutions. The new 10 Year Health Plan for England signals three ‘big shifts’: from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention, and from analogue to digital. We need to invest in our services and our staff and change how we deliver care that meets the changing needs of our patients.

We are doing three things to reduce waiting times.

1. Helping our staff find more time to care

We are changing how we do things to improve our efficiency and productivity, helping us get more care out of every minute of clinical time.

We are using the opportunities of digital technology to speed things up and avoid missed appointments.

• Ambient Voice Technology is helping clinicians take notes and write letters more quickly.
• MY CARE is helping us fill short-notice appointments that could go to waste. We’re also using it to send appointment reminders and more.
• AI tools are helping us identify patients who are likely to miss their appointment. With this knowledge we can take steps to help them get there.

How you experience care might look different too.

• We might not book a follow-up appointment after your treatment. Instead, we might offer you patient initiated follow up appointments. You can contact us to book an appointment when you need one.
• You might have your appointment with other patients. We’re using group clinics for some appointments where patients have an ongoing health problem. Patients can learn together about managing their health problem in a safe, supportive environment.
• You might not come to hospital at all. Our clinicians are providing more advice and guidance to GPs. Your GP can pass on the specialist advice to you.

2. Creating more space to care

From expanding buildings where we can do multiple diagnostic tests in one visit to new centres of excellence for surgery, we are increasing our capacity across all the stages of a patient’s journey with us. There is limited funding for this. Our teams have worked hard to secure extra national funding for these projects.

We know that when our urgent care services are extremely busy, sometimes we need to cancel planned procedures and surgery. This is because the bed needed for a patient after that procedure may be taken up by someone who is very poorly and needs urgent care. We are also transforming our urgent care services to get people the care they need whilst minimising time spent in hospital. This will help us protect hospital beds meant for non-urgent care.

3. Using the latest medical advances

Our staff are at the forefront of innovation. This means that our patients benefit from excellent care that often reduces their recovery time and gets them home sooner or catches health problems before they get worse.

Techniques like robotic surgery are allowing us to carry out precise surgery whilst being less invasive. This means that many more procedures can be done as a day case rather than needing an inpatient stay overnight. This includes things like abdominal wall surgery or hip replacements.

We have a proud culture of research at the Royal Devon. Our staff are always running research projects, including clinical trials. These include innovations like using robots to improve hip replacement surgery and spotting early cancer warning signs in routine blood tests. 

Keep up to date with our work

On this page you can see the latest news about our work to reduce waiting times.

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Did you know?

In 2025 our staff delivered more than they’ve ever delivered before

• Over 1.3 million outpatient appointments and procedures
• Over 110,000 day case procedures
• Over 9,000 inpatient procedures