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Mark is passionate runner with a long history of competing in marathons, ultra marathons and canicross. At the end of 2024 a run with friends ended in an emergency on Bodmin Moor. This is Mark's story of what happened, his treatment and recovery at UHP and his return to the hobby he loves. We shared Mark's story at the AGM this year.
Our AGM is a wonderful moment to come together, celebrate our achievements of the past year and reflect on the journey we as individuals and a community have been on.
We were grateful to be joined by so many colleagues to celebrate and acknowledge the success and challenges of the past year.
Chairman James Brent opened the AGM, saying: “Welcome to what will be a true celebration of the past year. It’s quite extraordinary what has been achieved over the past year, including being the number one most improved Trust in the country for four hour waits. We’re really getting ahead in terms of the 10 Year Plan, recognising the importance of those three key streams and the improvement that will make for patients. Our research programme, delivered by our impressive research team and delivered across the organisations, goes from strength to strength.
“We have a huge agenda over the next few years, some really positive changes in terms of EPR, new buildings and new colleagues joining us, and some really big challenges as well but the ambition among colleagues is determined.”
We were the no. 1 most improved Trust in the country for 4 hour waits
We were in the best 25% of the country for most planned patient care, including outpatients and 9th best hospital Trust in the country for theatre utilisation
We changed the way we use our resources to investing in community-based prevention and recovery to keeping care in the community, closer to people’s homes and reducing impact on bed-based services
Between April 2024 and January 2025 we achieved 81% against the 28 day cancer standard – the highest performance in the peninsula and 4% above the national target
We made significant improvements in reducing the time patients wait for outpatient diagnostics and we were above our target of 87% of patients waiting <6 weeks
We led in research in the south west. Our overall recruitment to NIHR clinical trials totalled 33,374 patients. This ranked UHP in 1st place for NIHR regional reporting metrics (SWP) and in 2nd place nationally
The achievement of our £56m cost improvement programme is another milestone, an historic first
Our Chief Financial Officer Sarah Brampton presented the audited accounts for 2024-2025 which you can read in our Annual Report 2024-25t. This year we also a summary version of our Annual Report.
“Delighted to be here to present the financial report. As James alluded to it was a really exciting year in terms of seeing the improvements we have made. We set ourselves a really challenging plan at the start of the year to put ourselves in the best position to support improving our emergency care routes and through collective effort we delivered our revenue plan, achieving the largest saving target we’ve ever had as an organisation.
“In 2024-25 we have delivered more clinical activity than ever before as a result of improving our productivity, this has highlighted that we need more space in order to continue to deliver high quality services for our patients. Our capital expenditure was £132m, this included investment in our electronic patient record project, the new hospital programme, the new UTC and the community diagnostic centre.
“We have real optimism and opportunity as we continue to develop our facilities into the forthcoming year.”
Emergency Medicine Consultant Anne Hicks talked about the improvements to the emergency care pathway which had led to UHP being the most improved Trust in the country for ED waiting times. Central to these improvement has been the Trust’s One Plan for Urgent and Emergency Care – our roadmap for improving our patient safety and the experience patients have whilst in our care.
“The only individual in our mind is the patient. The patient waiting for their ambulance, unable to receive one because it was outside our Emergency Department. This is what motivated everyone to deliver the One Plan. To ask what we can do before the hospital to avoid admission, how do we focus on discharge to ensure patients are returned to their homes as soon as possible. We took the focus away from ED and took a look at what our patients actually wanted; and what we could do to innovate and make those changes for our patients. And now, having seen the improvement that is possible, we are not resting on our laurels, there is still a lot to do but we are in a great position.”
The presentation was followed by a short film featuring patient Rosemary and some colleagues from the Emergency Department reflecting on their personal experiences in the department.
Our One Plan has been a key strategic driver this year and we are fortunate to have so many colleagues attend today to present on their respective services.
Radiographer Adam Prout and Transformation Manager Ryan Hunneman presented the launch of our, now award winning, x-ray car service. A key stream from our “One Plan” is to avoid admission for patients by taking the care to them where they need it most.
“The car enables us to reach patients at home and in the community to assess them and start treatment plans as early as possible, with the aim of keeping as many patients out of hospital as possible. We’re seeing real impact, a reduction in the numbers of patients coming to ED, more patients being treated in their home. A potential of 2436 bed days have been saved and 203 avoided ambulance conveyances to our ED. Our incredible team of radiographers and acute GP service deliver this fantastic provision for our patients which has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from those receiving and delivering it.
“It has meant transformation change to our clinical practice and at times put us out of our comfort zone but the benefit of that is how our clinical skills have evolved to further enhance the service our patients receive, wherever they receive it.
Jess Clarke and Gabrielle Asplen then presented a fascinating insight into the HomeFirst campaign which has now been running for two years: “We want to support people to be independent for longer’, this is the statement that motivates the service we deliver. There were some real challenges to overcome along the way: capacity, planning and culture and by working as a system we were able to overcome these.
“We have a really dynamic offer for our patients, a number of pathways including an acute virtual ward, a frailty ward, an urgent community response and the x-ray car… there is a challenge for our acute colleagues to see the diversity of service we can offer and EPIC (our EPR) is going to be really powerful in changing the mindset of ‘this is too complex for community’.”
Consultant Orthogeriatrician, Joanna Davies and her team presented our NOF (neck of femur fracture) pathway. Setting the scene, Jo outlined the previous experience for our patients arriving with hip fractures, when there was not a pathway as such for them: “They are now received as a priority and we have dedicated theatre slots and an established pathway to deliver the best service for these patients. A whole team are involved in delivering the care for these patients, orthopaedic surgeons, geriatricians, nutritionists, physiotherapies.”
In May 2023, 3.4% of patients were leaving ED within four hours with a diagnosis of NOF. By May 2025 this has increased to 29%, with the national average standing at 9%. The average wait times for surgery were 53 hours, but are now 36, and our Length of Stay (LoS) for this patient group has also seen a dramatic improvement.
“It’s taken a big team on the ward and beyond to deliver these improvements. We’ve now gone 7 days a week and we’re looking to see how many more improvements we can make to the care and the outcomes for our patients.”
The AGM then heard from Simon and Caroline about the opening of the Children’s Surgical Unit. The work that has taken place now ensures some children and their families can access care much closer to home, having previously had to travel to Bristol for many surgeries. “What we’ve achieved is something really special, making the space for children and young people can be very difficult in large acute hospitals. A silver lining from covid enabled us to develop our space and make it a space which is welcoming for patients across all the ages we provide care for. We have improved the area and increased capacity and specialist services not only for children in Plymouth but right across Devon. We are only the second children’s unit in the country to be accredited by GIRFT and are delighted to be so,” they said.
“Designated as a specialist hub for children’s surgery in Devon and Cornwall, we work in close partnership with the specialist centre in Bristol, who travel down to our new facilities to provide the surgery and care to patients close to their homes. It takes a great team to achieve all of these things.”
Our active listening volunteer Michael and Patient Experience and Engagement Lead Becky are part of our voluntary services team. We have 386 volunteers, also known fondly as our ‘Orange Army’, with a further 70 volunteers currently in the recruitment stages.
Becky presented some incredible stats from the ‘Orange Army’ across the year:
18000 medications delivered across the hospital
29,000 cups of tea made
Nearly 3 million steps taken
31,948 hours kindly donated
927 wellbeing phones call made
44,682 interactions with patients and carers
In January 2025 we developed a new role of active listening volunteers to understand how many of our patients had been given the opportunity to feedback on their care. Kindly supported with some training from the pastoral care team we’ve now had 633 conversations providing invaluable feedback. From this listening 96% of patients rated the overall quality of care as excellent or good.
Michael talked about his personal experience: “When talking to patients I really want to hear what they have to say, it’s very humbling to hear about their personal experiences. The interactions we have are priceless and not only do I touch their lives but they touch mine as well.”
It’s been an absolute privilege to establish our Young Persons Patient Council (YPPC) this year. Chair of the YPC Lachlan, alongside Daisy and Becky, presented on the first year of the council. 18 months from the concept to now and our members are not only patients but carers and those who have an interest in working in healthcare in the future. “Together we’re building a future to be proud of. We’ve seen organic growth in the council and run really engaging sessions, we’re flipping the power and exploring what matters most to us as young people and feeding that back into the organisation. We have a strong core membership and are working to build those trusting relationships with staff who go above and beyond. Our events are something we look forward to, they’re a space where our voices can be heard and we’ve been part of recruitment panels where our voices have been given equal scoring to the panels made up of healthcare professionals.
“We’ve only been going for 9 months but we’re on an incredible journey, our membership continues to grow and we represent areas across Devon and Cornwall. Nominated for two awards the future is looking extremely bright for this essential part of UHP. Keep the fun, engagement and imagination alive…anything is possible”
Corinna and colleagues from our Research and Development team came to explain how research is about so much more than the Wikipedia definition: “The use of scientific methods to produce knowledge about diseases, treatments, and health promotion.”
“It’s how we interact with patients, it’s how we can change their lives or how we can change the lives of their children and families and how we can provide tomorrow’s treatments today,” explained Corinna.
“We have an extensive research portfolio overseen by an amazing team of 104. In 2024-25 we recruited 33,922 participants into studies and celebrated a number of milestones. For 8 studies we were the first nationally to recruit to them and we launched our mobile research units so we can reach those communities and see participants in their homes. These fully accessible vehicles have had an incredible impact for our participants and colleagues and many more are being rolled out across other organisations.
“We are a really well-established as a national leading university research organisation here at UHP.”
The focus of the AGM then switched to our future.
Sarah and Gemma looked ahead to the launch of our Electronic Patient Record (EPR) in summer 2026: “An EPR will be an incredible and empowering tool, not just for UHP but right across Devon. The EPR will transform the way we work and the care we provide to our patients. All the improvements we’ve seen today about admission avoidance and patients receiving treatment closer to home, being more involved in their care will only be enhanced through us having an EPR, and that’s such an empowering development for patient care.”
Nicki presented on behalf of our future hospital team on the forthcoming developments, including the Dartmoor building Urgent Treatment Centre, the Community Diagnostic Centre located near the city-centre, and the urgent care building which represent a huge investment in our hospital estate to improve patient, visitor and staff environments. “Throughout the journey we’ve been listening to our clinical colleagues ensuring that we build facilities fit for the future. It’s an exciting time to be delivering better space to care and working collaboratively with our partners across the community.”
Architect graphic of Urgent care building
Dartmoor building Urgent Treatment Centre
Architect graphic of Community Diagnostic Centre
We finished the presentation with a short film featuring former patient Mark, who shares his incredible story of how the stars aligned when he suffered a heart attack while running out on Bodmin Moor, through to his transformative care and treatment at the end of December 2024 which has enabled him to already return to running. You can watch Mark's story at the top of this page.
The Chairman closed the meeting, saying: “The passion and commitment from the teams who have presented today, to deliver the best care and experience for patients is palpable. The ambition to continue delivering and improving the care provided to patients is present across all the teams working at UHP, including our volunteers, and across our partners in the community. A huge thank you to everyone. There is a massive sense of pride from the Board and the sense of ambition we’ve heard is going to carry us well as we continue into the challenges we face.”
