Image: by Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61321185
Health and social care secretary Victoria Atkins visited North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) on Tuesday to learn about plans to upgrade the estate and improve patient care.
Atkins was shown the theatres and intensive care unit, and heard more about how the spaces will be redeveloped as part of the Our Future Hospital (OFH) programme.
NDDH is included in the New Hospital Programme (one of those which is not 'new') and the OFH programme was set up in response to this.
Atkins also found out how national funding over winter 2023/24 was used to to improve urgent care performance through increasing bed numbers and reshaping medical bed space.
Digital technologies were also discussed and the minister discovered how they were being used to improve the delivery of care to our remote rural and coastal communities.
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.”
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.”
