Case Study - South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Meeting patient needs
South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a medium sized district general hospital providing a full range of clinical services to the people of Torbay and South Devon.
The overarching principle of the Trust is to ensure they provide ‘safer care with no delays’ to the community.
The aim of the pilot project was to ensure services provided by the hospital connect with the patient’s needs at the earliest opportunity through the optimum balance of case mix and skill mix at all times, to deliver high quality patient services through high performing, integrated teams, seamlessly delivered.
The Trust adopted a standard project methodology across the entire organisation to ensure there was a consistency of approach and understanding throughout of project facilitation.
Key Learning
Obtain support from senior staff
Implement standard methodology for change
Encourage feedback from staff.
There is a clear, systemic alignment of the contribution of each department to ensure maximum quality and productivity. There is an integrated team approach to the delivery of care, which reflects the need to reduce the service input from junior doctors to support compliance with European Working Time Directive (EWTD) whilst providing an enhanced training experience through modernising medical careers (MMC).
The vision was delivered by specialist teams streamlining elective and emergency care, plus integrated multidisciplinary teams providing cross cover to a range of specialties. This integrated system continues to be supported by a programme of system redesign, team development, new ways of working and sophisticated clinical decision making, handover and communication processes, maximising the use of IT systems.
The project is the next step to transform the current service delivery model to an integrated, patient focused, care system delivered through multidisciplinary teams providing both specialist and integrated care across the whole hospital.
Effective relationships with the medical director, director of nursing and quality and the clinical governance team have ensured that governance frameworks and procedures are adhered to within the scope of the project.
Emphasis was placed on the development of clinical decision making protocols and supporting risk assessments. Effective communication systems to support handover and escalation have been developed.
The Trust has set major goals related to financial and quality outcomes, which require modernisation of the service and workforce, which will lead to full compliance with EWTD. However the project funding provided the Trust with the opportunity of securing dedicated project management expertise to ensure that the modernisation programme was fast tracked, delivering high quality results, achieving full compliance with EWTD before the 2009 deadline and providing a programme of learning for dissemination nationally.
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Working Time Directive 2009 
