On 1 March 2023, it will be three years since a state-of-the-art helipad opened at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, thanks to a £1million donation from the HELP Appeal. Since 2020, it has seen 283 landings from air ambulance helicopters, which is on average, nearly two landings every week.
The hospital’s previous helipad could not accommodate helicopter landings at night, but the current helipad is equipped with lighting, so air ambulances can land during darkness hours. The new helipad was also enlarged to enable the latest generation of air ambulances to land. These bigger...
FORCE Cancer Charity and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital’s Radiotherapy Department have celebrated a milestone in the treatment of prostate cancer.
The hospital has treated its 1,000th patient with high dose-rate brachytherapy, using equipment bought by FORCE.
Bill Collings received his therapy at the RD&E’s Wonford unit.
The treatment is also known as HDR brachytherapy or temporary brachytherapy.
It is a type of internal radiotherapy that involves inserting thin tubes into the prostate gland.
RD&E helipad will be upgraded to enable more patient landings
Work to upgrade the current helipad at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust will begin this month, thanks to a £1 million donation from the County Air Ambulance HELP Appeal.
The donation has covered the cost of the redevelopment and will allow the introduction of night landings at the hospital. At the moment, the helipad does not have the capacity to support night landings, meaning that its day light operation is limited, especially throughout the winter months. The upgraded helipad will also be...
The Neonatal team at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital have fought off competition from across the globe to win an international Kangaroo-a-thon.
The challenge saw the unit competing against 110 other hospitals around the world including the USA, India and Australia. The team came out on top with an incredible 1351 hours of Kangaroo care recorded over 15 days.
Kangaroo Care, named as such from the close physical contact that a kangaroo gives their young, encourages skin to skin contact between parents and their premature or sick babies.
The high standard of diabetes care provided to inpatients at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital has continued to improve according to the latest results of the National Inpatient Diabetes Audit (NADIA).
NADIA looks at the care of all inpatients with diabetes on a single day in all Trusts across England and Wales. It focuses on key staffing and organisational issues, clinical outcome measures and patient satisfaction levels.
The 2016 audit, completed on a day in September, shows the Trust has continued to build on its positive performance in previous years and has performed...
A fantastic collection of supercars will be driving a crucial message from Lands-End to Bristol for a super cause.
The ‘BCW Grand Tour’, lead by local charity Bowel Cancer West, will include a Lamborghini, a Porsche and the 2016 winner of the Crumball Rally to draw attention to bowel cancer in the hope of saving lives during bowel cancer awareness month in April.
Each year, around 40,000 men and women are diagnosed with bowel cancer. It is the UK’s second biggest cause of death through cancer, largely because too many people either aren’t aware of the symptoms, will ignore...
A photographic exhibition which gives an insight into Devon’s war hospitals during the First World War (1914–18) has opened at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
‘Devon Caring in War’ includes a series of images showing how the county’s war-wounded were cared for on their return home, including by the use of some pioneering therapy techniques.
The exhibition is part of the Devon Remembers Heritage Project which is run by the South West Heritage Trust with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project aims to give local people an opportunity to explore the county's...
Patients at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital can now recline in comfort when having a scan of their heart thanks to a £4,000 donation from the Exeter Golf and Country Club.
The donation to the RD&E’s Cardiac Fund has been used to purchase a new ‘echo couch’ for patients to lie on when having an echocardiogram, a scan using sound waves to create images of the heart and surrounding blood vessels. The new couch replaces an older and worn-out version in one of the Cardiac Unit’s three echo suites on Taw Ward, and will significantly increase patients’ comfort.
The inspirational story of a Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital patient who became trapped in a body which shakes uncontrollably is to feature in a flagship new ITV documentary this week [Thursday 5 May].
Retired Royal Marine and Falklands veteran James ‘Mac’ MacGregor, aged 68 from Woodbury in Devon, has battled increasingly violent tremors in his body for the past five years after suffering a fit while travelling around Europe with his wife Chez in 2007.
Over time the tremors have steadily taken over his body from head to toe and made it increasingly difficult for Mac -...
Two Devon based charities have donated a new ultrasound scanner to the Vascular Access team at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital to help them care for patients with cancer.
FORCE Cancer Charity and the Exeter Leukaemia Fund (ELF) jointly donated the machine to give the team more flexibility when preparing patients to receive chemotherapy treatment on the hospital’s oncology and haematology wards.
The ultrasound scanner is used by a specialist nurse to find a suitable vein to insert a long thin tube or line to administer chemotherapy drugs through. The new machine will...
