CQC confirms patients
continue to receive good
level of care at Torbay
Hospital
The CQC has published the results of its latest annual adult
inpatient survey based on a
sample of patients who were in
hospital for at least one night
during June, July or August ‘14.
Torbay Hospital wins CHKS Top Hospitals’ 2015 Award
South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been
named as one of the 40 best-performing Trusts in England in
the CHKS Top Hospitals Award for 2015.
Who are we?
South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust runs a
general hospital (Torbay Hospital) serving the South
Devon area.
The biggest part of the Trust’s work is
emergency treatment. Over 70,000 patients a year
come through Torbay Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department.
Torbay Hospital therefore serves a resident
population of approaching 300,000 people, plus
about 100,000 visitors at any one time during the
summer holiday season.
Integrating hospital and community care
Finding new ways to deliver high-quality health and
social care is more important now than ever before.
We are proposing to merge South Devon Healthcare
NHS Foundation Trust with Torbay and Southern Devon
NHS Health and Care Trust to develop a comprehensive
integrated health and care service.
The community hospitals across South Devon, and a wide range of community health services
are run by Torbay and Southern Devon NHS Health
and Care Trust.
South Devon Healthcare is one of Devon’s
biggest employers with over 3,500 paid staff as well
as hundreds of volunteers.
Our aim is to support everyone in living well and ageing
well. We will place greater emphasis on promoting
healthy lifestyles, preventing ill-health and enabling
self-care. Different roles and career pathways will
evolve to meet the changing needs of our population,
offering our staff new opportunities to grow and develop.
We believe that the creation of our integrated care organisation will improve local health and social care services and also protect them for the future.
Who should I contact for further information?
Recruitment HR
South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
[email protected] 01803 653352
Surgical Care Practitioners at Torbay Hospital
The Trauma & Orthopaedic Directorate at Torbay Hospital has championed the role of the Surgical Care Practitioner (SCP).
We currently employ 1 senior SCP, 2 qualified SCPs and 3 SCPs who are currently undergoing training.
What are SCPs? SCPs are a registered non-medical practitioner who has completed a Royal College of Surgeons accredited
programme (or other previously recognized course) , working in clinical practice as a member of the extended surgical team,
who performs surgical intervention, pre-operative care and post-operative care under the direction and supervision of a
Consultant surgeon.
What are the benefits of SCPs?

The SCP role in theatre provides continuity for the consultants, theatre staff and patients.

Increased surgical skills and knowledge provide surgeons with regular highly skilled assistance during operating theatre
lists. Post-operative ward rounds are also undertaken.

The SCPs also undertake clinical follow up for patients for knee and hip replacement as well as shoulder surgery. An
SCP led clinic for the follow-up and monitoring of patients who have undergone metal-on-metal hip resurfacings and
metal-on-metal total hip replacements has been implemented.
This enables consultants to see only patients who are
symptomatic of problems and once relevant investigations
have been undertaken.
Where do SCPs work? The SCPs work on both Ella Rowcroft and
Ainslie wards. This involves taking on some aspects of the junior
doctor role and includes participation in ward rounds, taking bloods,
requesting investigations and contributing to the writing of patient
discharge summaries. This is of particular benefit when the wards are
at capacity, or there is a particularly heavy workload.
The Role of the Nurse Practitioner at Torbay Hospital

The nurse practitioner role was first developed approx. 12 years ago starting with local anaesthetics for cataract
surgery.

A competency framework was strictly followed, providing a standard of training that was cost effective but
maintaining the same standards previously provided by anaesthetists.

The whole training was a resounding success and to date we have six nurse practitioners with a further two undergoing training.

The role is extremely cost effective for the Ophthalmology department. By providing the Practitioners with
more autonomy, it has led to further expansion of the role e.g nurse led glaucoma clinics, cataract follow up
clinics, Intra Vitreal Injection Practitioners, botox clinics, and nurses carrying out minor operations.

One Practitioner has developed her role to become an Ophthalmic Specialist Nurse.

The busiest area involving Ophthalmic Nurse Practitioners is the Macula service. This has become heavily reliant
on the nurse practitioners giving the Intra Vitreal Injections which were previously given by the consultants. Torbay was one of the first units in the country to provide this service, taking in patients from all over the country.
Some patients have so much faith in the unit that they prefer to travel to Torbay rather than attend their local
hospitals. One of our big advantages is that we provide a “one stop” service, treating patients on the same day.
Research Nurse Careers & Research at South Devon
Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Research today is tomorrow’s care
Research is considered core NHS business and significantly
contributes to improving patient care and outcomes. In line
with government policy the Trust is dedicated to making research both relevant and accessible to staff, the general public, to patients and their carers. The Trust actively promotes
and supports research, striving to develop a research culture
and capability, which:

enables research to happen locally;

helps to generate and improve our current knowledge
and evidence base;

enables us to offer newer, better treatment options
and technologies to our patients sooner;

helps support improved patient outcomes;

enables us to provide the best and highest quality care
and services possible.
participation in national and international multi centre
studies (i.e. hosted studies) badged by the National Institute
for Health Research (NIHR); with a small number of Trust led
or initiated studies (stand alone or part of educational
courses). Research is undertaken in most clinical specialities
within the clinical divisions as well as some organisational,
service development type R&D. Our portfolio is a balance
between commercial and non-commercial, interventional
(drugs, devices, surgical etc) and non-interventional studies
(observation, genetics etc).
We employ approximately 20 Clinical Research Nurses
working primarily in the acute sector (Torbay Hospital) but
increasingly branching out supporting joined up care within
the community, primary care and social care sectors.
The research teams / workforce: Why engage in research?
For many nurses & other health professionals, clinical
research offers a career path that is both intellectually
challenging, and highly rewarding. Developing or delivering a
well-designed clinical study does not only generate vital new
knowledge, it can also have surprisingly widespread benefits
for patients, both now and in the future.
The Trust has been consistently in the top 10 performing
DGHs in England when benchmarked against similar medium
sized acute Trusts (Guardian NIHR League Table); approving
on average 60 new research studies per year; has a portfolio
of 300 active studies; recruiting over 1300 patients per
Studies suggest that patients who receive care in
annum.
research-active institutions have better health outcomes than
Our aim is to increase access to and recruitment into clinical patients who are treated in a non-research environment, so
studies and to grow our research opportunities and activities by joining the research community you are actively helping to
drive the standard of healthcare for your patients. By
across specialties and services.
investigating the cause and course of diseases and how best
Our staff and service is part of the National Institute for to treat them, you are also helping to establish “what works”,
Health Research (NIHR) –with the majority of activity being and building the body of evidence that can lead to a positive
change in future care.
General enquiries
South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust,
Torbay Hospital,
Lowes Bridge,
Torquay, TQ2 7AA
Torbay Hospital Switchboard:
0300 456 8000 (local rate) or 01803 614567
Who should I contact for further
recruitment information?
Recruitment HR, South Devon Healthcare
NHS Foundation Trust
[email protected] 01803 653352
Dementia Training
Local hospitals celebrate top PLACE
Here in Torquay and South
Hospitals across Torbay and Southern Devon have received
some top ratings in a report published by the NHS Health and
Social Care Information Centre. Both TSD, which runs 11
community hospitals stretching from Tavistock to Dawlish, as
well as SDHFT, which runs Torbay Hospital, took part in the
patient-led PLACE assessments.
Devon, it is estimated that
28 per cent of the population will be over the age of
65 by 2020 and with the
proportion of people with
dementia doubling for every five year age group, it is critical
we ensure the services to support these individuals are effective.
What have we achieved? Torbay and Southern Devon Health
The annual self- assessments, which took place earlier this
year, are referred to as Patient-Led Assessments of the Care
Environment (PLACE). PLACE aims to review key areas from a
patient perspective across a range of non-clinical services
within four main categories—cleanliness, food & hydration,
privacy, dignity and wellbeing and condition, appearance &
maintenance.
and Care NHS Trust (TSD) has now reached our target of ensuring that all of our 11 community hospitals have 95% or
more of staff trained in dementia awareness. This means
that all of our community hospitals are now ‘Dementia
Aware’ and can display the Purple Angel. The Purple Angel
signifies recognition and understanding of dementia and has
become an iconic symbol in the promotion of dementia
awareness globally.
What’s next? TSD continues to move forward with new initiatives this year including the Building Bridges Campaign
which involves improving links between professionals and
patients’ families and carers to provide the most personcentred, appropriate care for those we look after.
All of the hospitals performed above the national average in
most of the key assessment areas and, in addition, five community hospitals in Torbay and Southern Devon (Brixham,
Dawlish, Newton Abbot, Paignton and Totnes) scored above
the community national average in all four categories.
Karen Robertson, Head of Facilities for both Trusts, said: “The
strong results across our hospitals in Torbay and South Devon demonstrate our commitment in making the whole patient experience as comfortable as possible and ensuring we
deliver the highest standard of excellence and quality of care
to all those who stay in our hospitals. I know staff at all of
the hospitals will take pride in knowing the hard work and
dedication they put in each day has helped achieve these
results.”