Nightingale Hospital Exeter

Ratings - Outpatients

• Overall

  Good

• Safe

  Good

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

Date of Assessment: 5 and 6 June 2025

We conducted an on-site, comprehensive assessment visit of the Nightingale Hospital Exeter Outpatients department, which is part of Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. We assessed quality statements from the safe, effective, responsive, caring and well-led key questions. We rated the service as good overall, with some categories in effective, responsive and well-led scored as outstanding. This was the first inspection of the service.

The service provides a range of outpatient services which includes, rheumatology, sarcoma, lung cancer, ophthalmology, cardiology, respiratory and sleep clinics.

The service had a good safety culture. Staff had completed relevant mandatory and competency-based training. The environment was safe, clean and fit for purpose. The service monitored all people's care and treatment to continuously improve it and delivered effective evidence-based care and treatment. Staff communicated with patients with kindness and compassion and protected patients' dignity. The service worked to ensure everyone could access the care, support and treatment they needed when they needed it. The service was well-led and worked hard to share their knowledge both locally and nationally.

People's experience of this service

Feedback from patients and their family or carers was positive about staff treating them with warmth and kindness and providing effective care and treatment. People felt they were receiving considerate support from competent staff.

People told us the service was very effective and they didn't have to wait long to be seen by a nurse or clinician. Patient feedback on all the services provided was overwhelmingly positive. For example, 1 service user said the ophthalmology clinic worked, "like clockwork". Another service user said they were "blown away by all aspects of the sarcoma `1 day' service. The medical staff have been everything they should be and more. Professional, kind and caring". A service user being treated for breathlessness on the Buttercup Unit stated, "It was great to have all of my appointments in 1 day and be able to speak to the consultant. The Nightingale Hospital Exeter is a great setting and very easy to use." Another service user who was treated at the Buttercup Unit stated, "The speed at which I have been seen was absolutely phenomenal; this is an incredible service. For someone who suffers from anxiety it was incredibly reassuring to receive the results in the same day".

Patients said the environment was spacious and well designed. Patients thought the service was clean and tidy.

Patient feedback surveys indicated the overall experience of using the outpatient services was good. Patients either gave a score of 4 or 5 out of 5, with 77.8% rating the service as a 5.