Through consultation with our staff, we have developed a clear vision and core values:

Vision
To be recognised as the best in everything we do, providing leading-edge, high quality health services, safely delivered with courtesy and respect.

Core Values

• To put patients first
• To take ownership
• To respect others
• To be positive

Strategic Aims
Safety, quality, efficiency and promoting health in everything we do

These are the key aims of our care programmes and they are also the overarching strategic aims of the organisation as a whole. We have set out a clear strategy to translate our vision into reality:

Our Care Programmes
We have developed five “care programmes”, outlined below, which align nationally as well as with the ambitions contained in “The Draft Strategic Framework for Improving Health in the South West 2008/09 to 2010/2011” as produced by NHS South West and the “Strategic Framework for Improving Health in Plymouth (2008/09 – 2010/11)” produced by NHS Plymouth.  The Trust has now appointed a Programme Lead for each of these programmes and this strategic approach is evolving as we move into 2009/10.

Maternity and Newborn
In recent years Derriford Hospital has become a tertiary centre with the development of the Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The Maternity and Newborn programme is responding to the challenges associated with growing birth rates and requirements related to equality of access.

Children and Young People
We are a major provider of children’s services. Moving forwards, services will be increasingly multi-agency, commissioned by Children’s Trusts and provided within the community. Required standards for these services are challenging and require dedicated facilities, training and in many cases staffing. We are responding to these challenges and providing ever-better services for our children.

Acute Care
We fulfil a regional role in providing unscheduled care as Derriford Hospital is the only centre with the full range of clinical facilities on one site. We are further improving the clinical excellence of our service through national framework , such as those for stroke, trauma and cardiac.

Planned Care
Planned care includes outpatient appointments, planned investigations and elective procedures. We remain the largest provider of planned care locally and are committed to improving the experience of our patients in this care programme.

Long-term Conditions
Like most acute Trusts, we provide a great deal of care for people with long term conditions. Much of this care is provided through traditional services such as outpatients and emergency admissions. The government’s white paper entitled, ‘Our Health, Our Care, Our Say’ places greater choice and control in the hands of the people who use these services and promotes the development of models of services, some of which are community based and tailored for the needs of people with chronic conditions. We are working with our partners to ensure that the specialist expertise and knowledge of our clinicians is used to help develop the best services for patients with long term conditions.