North Devon and Exeter NHS Trusts become Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust (NDHT) and the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust (RD&E) merged on 1 April 2022 to become the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The organisations have merged so that they can combine resources and expertise to improve the resilience and sustainability of health services across North and East Devon.

Suzanne Tracey, Chief Executive Officer of the merged organisation, said:

“This is the final milestone in bringing together NDHT and the RD&E. We’ve been partners for a really long time, and as we’ve worked even more closely together over the past four years, we’ve seen what we can achieve together.

“Formally bringing our organisations together unlocks opportunities to improve the resilience and sustainability of the healthcare we deliver to our patients across all of the areas we serve, from North, to Mid, to East Devon.

“We have really strong ambitions for what we can achieve together and from July, we will have a common electronic patient record which will help us to modernise how we offer care to our patients for the future.”

The new organisation will be called the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Over 500 staff and members of the public were involved in the development of the name and it was chosen because it reflects the geographical span, heritage and aspirations of the merged Trust.

The trust statement says that staff and patients will see very little difference from day one. The same services will still be offered from all hospitals and teams. Over the next 2-3 years their teams will be working together to merge their corporate and clinical services. The new Foundation Trust will continue to provide acute, community and specialist services across Exeter, Eastern, Mid and Northern Devon.

Watch the Trust’s video below

You can read the full statement and frequently asked questions on the Trust’s website.