Board to Ward – April 2026
In April’s Board to Ward we share three highlights:
Building care in the community
We are working to build better care in the community for people such as:
South East Cornwall:
We are developing more same-day services at Liskeard Community Hospital so people can have tests, checks and treatment without needing to stay overnight or travel to a larger hospital. This will make it easier for people in East Cornwall to get care closer to home.
Frailty Pathway Workshop:
Hospital care is often the default response when frail older people experience a crisis, even though this may lead to harm and repeated assessments and unclear decision-making. Many of these crises could be predicted and prevented with earlier support. We are working with GP colleagues in Primary Care Networks, Livewell Southwest and voluntary and community partners to come together in a shared workshop to rethink how we care for people living with frailty. Led by the Chief Medical Officer @Mark Hamilton, the event will bring in experts and learning from other organisations to shape a better system, one that identifies risk earlier, provides coordinated care through neighbourhood-based teams and reduces avoidable hospital admissions for older people.
AI-Enabled Admission Prediction and Population Health Approaches to Cardiovascular Disease:
Our Integrated Neighbourhood Teams’ approach changes the focus from how people get to hospital care to how the hospital can better support people in their local communities. A key part of this is using data to identify people who are most at risk earlier, so support can be offered before problems become more serious. We are working with Primary Care partners and the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC) to design this approach together. At the same time, we are using population health information to focus more on prevention and improving long-term health, starting with pilot work on heart and circulatory conditions that can be expanded across our wider population.
Women’s health in Plymouth:
We welcomed Professor Steve Maddern, Director of Public Health for Plymouth, to talk about his excellent Annual Report focusing on the health of women: The Health and Wellbeing of Women in Plymouth Report 2026
Innovation hub for training and education:
Last year, UHP, the University of Plymouth, Plymouth Science Park (PSP) and Plymouth City Council agreed to create a thriving innovation hub around Derriford Hospital and the Science Park.
Since then, our Research and Development, Digital and Innovation teams have based themselves at PSP, and we are thrilled that our Department of Professional Healthcare Education has now moved into its permanent home on campus. The new facilities provide a modern learning environment with specialist training technology, virtual reality simulation equipment (pictured below) and enhanced audio-visual systems, enabling more high-quality, face-to-face training and development opportunities.
Ending corridor care
Our Board heard and discussed the story of Fred, a patient who experienced corridor care. Fred’s story is shared below, with the permission of his family. His story was also shared at our Corridor Care Summit yesterday where we gathered colleagues from different roles and wards/ departments around the trust as well as patient representatives, to agree the actions which will take to end corridor care.
Fred is a 92‑year‑old gentleman who has lived his whole life in Plymouth. He worked for many years in insurance and, following his retirement, volunteered for over 10 years with the hospital car service, supporting other patients to attend their appointments. Fred is married and had been living at home with his wife. Over several months his health had deteriorated, and he had become increasingly frail. He has very limited sight and is registered blind. He had experienced several falls at home.
Fred required a period of time in a care home and was being supported by the Frailty Virtual Ward. Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated further, and he was admitted to the Emergency Department. He was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, developed delirium, and subsequently a bacteraemia.
One night, Fred was transferred from one ward to another, where he was placed in a bed in the corridor opposite the nurses’ station. In this location, Fred had:
No access to a call bell, so he was unable to summon help
Limited ability to identify staff presence due to his visual impairment
No room for a bedside table, meaning drinks were out of reach and he had to balance his food on his lap
During a previous hospital admission, Fred had developed a pressure ulcer. He remained at high risk and should have been nursed on an air mattress. However, this could not be provided in the corridor due to the availability of only a single power supply. Although Fred is registered blind, he relies on daylight to orientate himself. Being positioned away from a window caused him to feel increasingly disorientated. Throughout the night he was unable to settle due to high noise levels and constant activity, which did not ease overnight.
Following a complaint raised by the family via PALS, Fred was moved into a bed within a bay. While the family felt relief that he had been moved, this was accompanied by a sense of guilt, knowing that another vulnerable patient had taken his place in the corridor.
Our number one patient safety priority for this year (2026/27) is to end corridor care. As Fred’s story illustrates, it’s unacceptable and affects the dignity of patients being cared for and the morale of staff caring for patients in areas that are outside of normal bed spaces. We’re taking steps such as seeing and treating more emergency patients on the same day which avoids them being admitted, this includes expanding our Frailty Same Day Emergency Care unit, caring for more patients in the community through the use of virtual wards and schemes like x-ray cars which go out and x-ray patients in their own homes.
We also demonstrated in a piece we did with BBC Spotlight last night about the work we are doing inside our hospitals to get our processes as slick as possible, for example making sure every patient has an Expected Day of Discharge and transferring them home or on to their next place of care as soon as they are medically ready and getting them ‘Home for Lunch’. This frees up beds in the hospital early in the day to move incoming patients into.
Philip, a patient on Honeyford Ward, told BBC about his positive experience of having a good plan for care and discharge in place. If we get this right for every patient, it will help us end corridor care. Ending corridor care will take time. While we take the actions to achieve this in the longer term, we’re working hard to protect the dignity of any patient who has to be cared for in a corridor for a short amount of time.
Making award winning progress
Emergency care improvements:
Our teams have worked hard to improve urgent and emergency care in the last year - the percentage of patients who were seen and treated in 4-hours within our urgent and emergency care units rose from 65% to 68.5%. Average ambulance handover times reduced from 125 minutes to 44 minutes, which meant overall that patients waited a total of 191 fewer days in ambulances in our car park this year compared to last year!
Award Winning:
We took around a third of all the South West NHS Excellent Awards. UHP won three categories regionally and our regional winners go forward as finalists for the national awards, held in June. Regional winners:
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Delivering value - Drugless CT Coronary Angiography service at University Hospitals Plymouth, UHP
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Working in partnership - A System-Wide Partnership for Compassionate End-of-Life Care, UHP
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Quality improvement - Acute Medical Admission Pathways, UHP
The judges agreed the standard of the 248 nominations were of such a high calibre they wanted to award second and third runners-up place, including some of our teams at UHP:
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Patient involvement and choice award: 2nd place - The Young Persons Patient Council: Putting Youth Voice at the Heart of Care, UHP
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Sustainable healthcare award: 3rd place - The Reusable Curtains Project, UHP
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Leadership award: 3rd place- Kandarp Thakkar, UHP
Thanks for reading.
Every month our Board leaders meet in public.
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Do you want to ask our Board leaders a question? Email plh-tr.corporate.governance@nhs.net
