Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

30/01/2026

🎉 Our January edition of Healthy Futures is now live! 🎉

This month we’re sharing stories that shine a light on the incredible work happening across Torbay and South Devon — from improvements in care and innovation, to the people and teams who make such a difference every day.

📰 Read the latest edition here: https://buff.ly/uaHcNzV

Thank you to everyone who contributed stories, photos and updates. We hope you enjoy catching up on what’s been happening across your local NHS.

29/01/2026

🎉 And the winners are… 🎉

We know our people are incredible — going above and beyond every single day for one another and for the people who use our services.

The Our People Awards are all about shining a spotlight on those standout individuals and teams who make a real difference. Any member of staff can nominate a colleague or a team for one of the seven categories and winners are chosen by a panel of judges four times a year.

It’s time to celebrate our latest winners...drum roll please! 🥁

👇Watch the video below to find out who they are!

🧡 A huge congratulations to all of our winners and thank you for everything you do!

We will be sharing their stories in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out 👀

29/01/2026

📢 Join our Paediatric Clinical Health Psychology Team

We have an exciting opportunity to join our Paediatric Clinical Health Psychology service as a Band 8a Clinical Psychologist.

We’re looking for someone with a genuine interest in working with children, young people and families, with experience ideally within health settings. You’ll be joining a large, supportive team where personal and professional development is truly valued — with plenty of opportunities for CPD, training and service development built into the role.

🕘 Fixed term, 26 hours per week (3/4 working days)
💷 Band 8a
📍 Torbay (with flexible working across health settings)

Find out more and apply 👉 https://buff.ly/kgGom0s

28/01/2026

🎉 Introducing the latest Our People Award nominees 🎉

Everyday our people and teams do amazing things to care for the people who use our services and support and encourage each other.

🧡 Our People Awards is our quarterly internal awards scheme to recognise and celebrate people going the extra mile.

Check out our nominees below 👇

Come back tomorrow at 7pm to hear our Chief Executive, Joe Teape announce the winners!

27/01/2026

🎉 Last year our Women's Health Unit at Torbay Hospital celebrated 40 years of providing compassionate care and support to families across our community. We asked our staff to share their memories and reflections from the past 40 years.

💙 Laura Jeffrey and her family's story spans 40 decades and three generations.

🗨️ "Our family’s story with the Women's Health Unit begins in 1983 with my birth in the Annexe, followed by my sisters on Mary Delve and John Macpherson wards. I remember visiting Mum in the TV room as she recovered while snow fell outside.

In 2012, our tiny son Barney Reef arrived at 36 weeks, weighing 4lb 4oz. We spent 10 days in SCBU, where we were guided through those first overwhelming days with such compassion. After a miscarriage in 2016, the Women’s Health Day Surgery Unit supported us with incredible care, and in 2017 our rainbow baby, Harper Rose, arrived early and was again cared for by SCBU. 🌈

In 2018, my sister welcomed Summer Eva during a snowstorm and felt “treated like a queen.” In 2022, our sister Sian, who now works for TSDFT too, welcomed Darcie Mae. Our cousins Emily and Sophie were also born here, and in April 2025 Emily welcomed her son Oliver in a calm, empowering water birth.

Most recently, Sian welcomed her second daughter, Rosie Elle, praising her midwife Donna Cook for making the experience so positive.

Across 40 years, Torbay’s Women’s Health Unit has welcomed 11 babies from our family — each arrival met with kindness, skill, and unwavering support, your teams have cared for us through early babies, snowstorms, loss, joy, and everything in between.

Thank you for playing such a special role in our family’s story." 💙

27/01/2026

❗️Check before you travel today as roads have been closed overnight, including Dartmouth Road by Clennon Valley due to flooding. Please don’t ignore Road Closure signs, they are there for a reason.

Before leaving on any journey today check whatever traffic apps you use and give yourself more time. And don’t drive through any flood water.

Stay safe!

❗️TRAVEL GUIDANCE | Storm Chandra is bringing rain, wind and flooding across Devon and Cornwall this evening.

If you are travelling on the roads overnight or in the morning, please check the latest travel information before doing so.

We are starting to see some roads become flooded and impassable and this is only likely to increase overnight.

If you know the roads you usually use are likely to flood – please avoid them. Do not attempt to drive through flood water.

If you are using the roads, please drive with caution and care, drive to the conditions and allow plenty of time for your journey. You should also increase your distance from other vehicles and stay attentive to your surroundings.

Your safety and the safety of others depend on responsible driving during adverse weather conditions.

There are many places to check information on the roads including - https://orlo.uk/N1UCQ your local news, the map app on your phone and other local traffic platforms.

Thank you and stay safe.

26/01/2026

🧑🎓 Tempted to join our award-winning nursing degree programme with The Open University, but don't know where to begin? There's still time to find out how to join our class of 2026 before applications close on 10 February.

Come and talk to our team tomorrow from 6-8pm on MS Teams to find out about entry requirements, funding and what you'll learn while training in our acute and community hospitals and studying for your children's or adults nursing degree with The Open University.

Email tsdft.pre-registrationnursing@nhs.net call 01803 656677 or search for Open University on our website for more details - we hope to see you online!

25/01/2026

❤️ We want to give a huge Sunday shout out to our fantastic people who work so hard every day to make sure you and your loved ones get the care and support you need, and have a good experience when you need us.

🎉 Thanks to their commitment to improve what we do, we're now the 13th best performing NHS trust in England for 18 week waits. NHS England's Chief Executive Sir Jim Mackey has celebrated our fantastic achievement, which you can read about in NHS England's The Month here https://buff.ly/ByjrjY4

🙏 Thank you to everyone who has worked this weekend, and if you've been on a well-deserved rest, we'll see you tomorrow.

25/01/2026

📢 Do you want to make a real difference in your community? We have the role for you!

We're looking for a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN) Health Visitor (HV) to work within our integrated 0 to 19 Torbay Partnership helping deliver the Healthy Child Programme and supporting children, young people, and families to thrive.

In this role, you’ll work collaboratively with a wide range of partners and services, supporting the delivery of key public health programmes and initiatives that promote prevention, wellbeing, and healthier lives for all.

🕘 Part time, 32 hours, Tuesday to Friday
📍 Based in Torquay, with opportunities to work across the wider Torbay and South Devon footprint
🤝 A chance to be part of a forward-thinking, supportive NHS team making meaningful impact every day

If you’re passionate about public health, population wellbeing, and being part of a service that truly cares about its communities, we’d love to hear from you 💙

👉 Find out more and apply here: https://buff.ly/VpBInDa

24/01/2026

👋 Say hello to Spencer — our brand-new inpatient pharmacy robot! 🤖💙

💊 Spencer has joined our Torbay and South Devon NHS family, replacing Robby, who served patients faithfully for more than 18 years and dispensed more than 3.4 million packs of medicines during that time.

Our pharmacy colleagues worked incredibly hard during the installation — manually processing every prescription through some of the busiest winter weeks — to keep patients safe and make sure discharges could continue smoothly. A huge thank you to the whole team, and especially to Stacey Muscott for leading the project.

Spencer is already helping us work faster and more efficiently and will integrate with our new Electronic Patient Record when it goes live in April.

📸 Ribbon cutting photo of Spencer and the team

💙 Thank you to everyone across Pharmacy and Capital Projects for making this upgrade possible 🙏

24/01/2026

⚠️ Please do not come to our emergency department unless you need life-saving care

🚑 Our emergency department at Torbay Hospital is very busy and we’re seeing lots of people who could be treated by another service. Only use our emergency department if you need life-saving care for conditions such as chest pain, breathing difficulties, unconsciousness or severe bleeding.

👩‍⚕️ Anyone who comes to our emergency department with a minor ailment or condition will be sent to our urgent treatment centre at Newton Abbot or our minor injuries department at Totnes. Our doctors and nurses can treat conditions including suspected and broken bones, injuries from slipping on the ice, something which needs an x-ray or stitching and animal bites.

We’re doing this to ensure our emergency teams can focus on treating people who need life-saving care. Thank you for your understanding and support.

▪️ Newton Abbot Urgent Treatment Centre is open from 8am-8pm, 7 days a week.
▪️ Totnes Minor Injuries Unit is open 8am-5pm, 7 days a week. You can walk in, but we
advise you book an appointment – call 01803 862622.

See the link in our bio for more details about our urgent treatment centre and minor injury units.

📲 Please call your GP if you need routine health advice, use 111, and visit a community pharmacist if you need advice and treatment for conditions such as coughs, colds, flu, nappy rash, red sticky eyes and water infections (UTIs). Thank you.

23/01/2026

📺 Did you see Paignton Community Hub on BBC Spotlight last night?

If you don’t know about the hub, it’s a one stop shop where you can get health and wellbeing support and advice from the NHS, the council, the voluntary sector and Healthwatch, all under one roof.

☎️ It's a fantastic service located on the ground floor of Paignton Library, next to the train and bus stations on Great Western Road. It's open every day from 9.30am -1.30pm. You can call 07562 780 102 or visit https://buff.ly/Ub8bn85 for more information.

Thanks to everyone involved - we're so lucky to have this where we live.