1. Home
  2. Community News

Devon's Top Ten NHS Successes

nhs1
(Last Updated On: July 9, 2018)

 

In a new announcement, the Devon STP (Sustainability and Transformation Partnership – what a mouthful!) celebrates its Top 10 developments and successes.

These include independent assessments by the Care Quality Commission highlighting  the great quality of Devon’s health and care services. The Devon Partnership NHS Trust, for example, has been rated ‘Good’ overall – with secure mental health services rated ‘Outstanding’ – and the Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust rated ‘Good’ overall and ‘Outstanding’ for caring.

Improving services for mums, The Devon Partnership NHS Trust opened Devon’s first Mother and Baby Unit, providing specialist care for mums with serious mental health needs, alongside their babies where previously women had to travel outside Devon for this care.

The announcement also highlights quicker access to GP services with half a million patients in Devon now having access to online GP services– ‘freeing up face-to-face appointments,’ they say, ‘for more complex medical conditions.’

On top of all of that, Devon attracted £30 million of national funding to enhance urgent and emergency care services, with Torbay Hospital upgrading its A&E department and Urgent Care Centres established in Torbay and Newton Abbot.

‘Exemplary joint working’ is also praised in the announcement , all four acute Trusts in Devon having come together in a ground-breaking ‘mutual support agreement’. The approach, which has been recognised by NHS England as ‘an exemplar of joint working’, supports all hospitals to continue to deliver safe and sustainable services by sharing staff and resources.

Top Tenners include, too, ‘Training for excellent care’ as more than 100 ambassadors have been trained to promote careers in health and social care in schools, colleagues and universities throughout Devon as part of Devon County Council’s successful Proud to Care campaign.

 

Bob Jope  Healthwatch Torbay

You can join us on our social media pages, follow us on Facebook or Twitter and keep up to date with whats going on in South Devon.

Got a news story, blog or press release that you’d like to share or want to advertise with us? Contact us

(Author)

Apart from five years studying in Oxford I’ve lived most of my life in London where for many years I was Head of English in a prestigious girls’ school, but since taking early retirement and heading West to be nearer to my two daughters - settling in Torbay with my wife, Anna, in 2011 - I’ve worked in the voluntary sector. I took on the role of Service Provider, for example, promoting the Red Cross Torbay Navigators Project, while now I’m a Trustee and part of the Media Team for our local Healthwatch. I’m a governor at Torquay Academy, too, giving me the chance to stay up to date with what’s happening in the world of education. Other interests, aside from friends and family, include art and art history, reading - from contemporary fiction and poetry to Elizabethan/Jacobean literature - history, politics, cooking, walking, and music, in particular Bob Dylan, the blues, and early Elvis. I love writing, too, with one novel published so far – Elvis in Wonderland – and another, Who’s There?, that still needs plenty of work!