About Us.
The NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter is a modern hospital that provides planned (non-urgent) care for patients across Devon. It is in a different location from the busy emergency hospitals in Devon.
Because many clinics and test services are all in one place, patients can often have everything done in fewer visits. This can help reduce waiting times and make appointments easier and quicker.
The NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter is home to the following services:
- Centre of Excellence for Eyes: delivering ophthalmic diagnostic imaging services and day case cataract surgery.
- Devon Diagnostic Centre: a community diagnostic centre (CDC) providing CT, MRI, X-ray, Ultrasound, EOS and Fluoroscopy services as well as other non-imaging diagnostics such as respiratory and cardiac diagnostic tests. The Devon Diagnostic Centre’s outpatient department; the Buttercup Outpatient Unit supports a new one stop clinic approach, where patients get all their diagnostic test and initial consultation in a single visit.
- Rheumatology department: both outpatient and day case infusion services.
- Southwest Ambulatory Orthopaedic Centre: has two operating theatres for day case and short stay elective orthopaedic procedures, such as knee and hip replacements. It is a GIRFT (Getting it right first time) accredited Elective Surgical Hub.
The NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter supports patients across Devon and also into Cornwall and Somerset. The Nightingale Hospital is managed by Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and is overseen by its Board of Directors.
The NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter’s legacy: a brief history
On 10 April 2020, the Chief Nursing Officer for England announced that a temporary NHS Nightingale hospital would open in Exeter to help tackle COVID-19.
The NHS Nightingale Exeter cared for nearly 250 patients with COVID-19 from across Devon, Somerset and Dorset.
Thousands of people from across the Southwest came together from dozens of industries to transform Exeter’s former Homebase site in Moor Lane, Sowton, into a medical facility. Just six weeks later, a 116-bed, state-of-the-art COVID-19 inpatient hospital was built and ready to care for local people.
Here is a time lapse video of the site being built:
Due to a reduction in COVID-19 numbers nationally, the Nightingale was first used to provide nearly 3,000 diagnostic tests to local people, host the delivery of a COVID-19 vaccine study, and provide training to hundreds of overseas nurses from Devon’s local hospitals.
On 12 November 2020, these services stopped and the Nightingale Exeter admitted its first COVID-19 inpatient. Over the next 4 months, the Nightingale cared for nearly 250 patients with COVID-19, providing extra capacity to help the other hospitals in the region continue to operate essential clinical services.
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise and to further support the Devon system, we have been working with local partners to redeploy enough staff to expand the number of open wards at the facility.
The Nightingale was a truly collaborative approach, staffed by health and care staff from across the South West region. At its peak, military personnel were also deployed to the site, supporting us to extend the number of open wards at the facility.
In March 2021, the last COVID-19 patient was discharged from the hospital. The Nightingale was then purchased by the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of NHS organisations across Devon and the South West region to continue the site’s legacy of supporting local people.
In May 2021, it was announced that the Nightingale would receive a share of funding from the National Accelerator Systems Programme, which was awarded to Devon to support the reduction in waiting times.
As a result of this funding, an extensive clinically led redesign programme was undertaken, and the Nightingale is now able to offer a range of orthopaedic, ophthalmology, diagnostic and rheumatology services to local people, helping to further reduce waiting times.
Below is a video of the new modular theatres at the Nightingale, which are best used for orthopaedic surgery: