Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital welcomes Health Minister
The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has heard first-hand how staff at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust are putting patient safety first during his visit to the hospital yesterday (Wednesday 2nd August).
The minister met groups of staff from across the Trust in the Research Innovation Learning and Development (RILD) building and told them that safety was a key focus for the health service since he had been appointed. He was accompanied by senior clinical advisor Professor Sir Norman Williams.
RD&E Medical Director, Adrian Harris and Deputy Chief Nurse, Tracey Reeves also updated the Health Secretary on the progress staff had made on improving patients safety, emphasising that it is the people delivering the programmes and not only the programmes themselves, that lead to the greatest improvements in patient safety.
The Trust had the opportunity to showcase some examples of the good progress it is making on patient safety, including:
The development of a Quality Improvement Academy (QIA), which was set up in 2013 to support Junior Doctors in implementing quality improvement and patient safety projects at the Trust.
A relentless focus on Infection Control which has resulted in multiple achievements such as attaining a Hospital Acquired Infection Rate that is 52% lower than the national average and achieving the lowest rate of Clostridium difficile cases in the South West in 2015/16.
Work that is underway to drive medication safety optimisation across the Trust.
The introduction of an innovative laryngectomy and tracheostomy swimming service which enables patients who breathe through their neck to re-enter the water safely.
Staff then had the chance to ask the minister questions, covering topics including recruitment and how to attract people to nursing profession, delivering more care in community, the important role of GPs and how they will be supported.
Finally, the minister met with RD&E Chief Executive Suzanne Tracey to briefly visit the Trust’s Emergency Department and discuss the Trust’s winter resilience plans for 2017/18, which builds on successful work last year to help the hospital manage high demand for services during the busy season.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "I was pleased to discuss patient safety with the staff of the Royal Devon and Exeter. We were in agreement that people, culture and behaviour are the most important ingredients for delivering safe patient care. In particular I want to congratulate staff on progress made on pressure sores and sepsis - long may you continue the good work."
Adrian Harris, Medical Director at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Providing safe, high quality care for our patients remains our top priority at the RD&E. This visit was a valuable opportunity for us to showcase the important work being undertaken by our staff every day to deliver this key aim and to highlight ways in which we are constantly striving to provide a better and safer service to our community.”
Suzanne Tracey, Chief Executive of the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, added: “We were delighted to welcome the Secretary of State for this visit and we hope that he gained a constructive insight into the way that we care for our patients at the RD&E. We are very proud of our high standard of patient safety across the Trust and this was a great occasion to shine a spotlight on just some of the innovative work being developed by our teams to keep safety at the top of our agenda.”
