Waiting for treatment

Are you waiting for a hospital procedure? Due to extraordinary pressure on our services, we are not able to see everyone as quickly as we (or you) would like. This page has information about what we are doing and how we can support you to look after yourself while you wait.

Long waits for treatment have risen sharply across the whole NHS. Our commitment to you is to be open about the challenges we face and to give you as much information and support as we possibly can while you wait.

Our staff are doing everything they can to tackle waiting times, including:

  • offering more video and phone appointments, which frees up valuable clinic time for those who need face to face appointments
  • working with other hospitals to make the best use of capacity across Devon – this means some people will be offered appointments at other hospitals if they can be seen sooner there than in Torbay Hospital
  • investing in new facilities that will help us make better use of our space, our equipment and our staff time; we have built a new Acute Medicine Unit with 26 assessment spaces. This will reduce overcrowding in our Emergency Department and help us to keep our surgical areas free for surgical patients
  • doing more procedures at weekends, in the evenings and at Mount Stuart Hospital in Torquay, as well as referring people to the Nightingale Hospital Exeter which houses a diagnostic centre and surgical hub serving the whole of Devon.

We have a range of videos, produced with our partner HCI, offering support and advice to help you keep well while you wait for your appointment.

If you are coming in to hospital, you may like to take a look at our videos showing you how to prepare, once you have a date for your appointment or surgery.

CONNECTPlus app

The CONNECTPlus app has been developed with our team to help you manage your long-term condition. The app provides condition-specific information and guidance, wherever you are in the world. You can use it to learn about your condition, and how to prepare for, and recover from procedures, and make informed decisions about your care. The app also captures information about your condition to help with your diagnosis and post-procedure treatment programmes.

Via the app you can:

  • keep a medication and appointment diary
  • get healthy lifestyle tips
  • find clinic locations
  • join a virtual joint school and physiotherapy programmes
  • watch helpful videos about how to manage your condition
  • contact your team directly.

We are adding to the app all the time and are currently working on features that help with medication management and trackers to help monitor your progress at home.

It is really easy to download the CONNECTPlus app.

Step 1: The app is available to download from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Just search for ‘CONNECTPlus’.

iTunes Google Play

Step 2: Select Torbay and South Devon. Once installed, open the app and select our Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust from the menu.

Step 3: Select your condition from the menu and explore the features and information included.

The Torbay Charts Decision Aid

If you are waiting for a hip or knee replacement, you might find The Torbay Charts Decision Aid tool helpful. This is a tool which allows you to be involved in making decisions about how to treat your hip or knee arthritis. Further information can be found at Torbay Charts.

Health Connect Coaching

The Health Connect Coaching Programme is a volunteer, peer-led, health and wellbeing coaching programme that has been designed and developed with people who have lived experience of long-term health conditions. Further information can be found on our Health Connect Coaching pages.

Useful links

Other useful advice and resources can be found at:

We are working with other healthcare providers across Devon to update MyHealth website and add more useful information to support and help you whilst you wait. In addition to specific information about health conditions and problems you can find out more about:

My Planned Care gives you advice and support while you wait and helps you to prepare for your hospital consultation, treatment, or surgery. This includes giving you information about waiting times at your hospital and other supporting and local services while you wait.

You can view current waiting times and advice by specialty on our section of the My Planned Care website.

As part of the drive to reduce elective waiting lists, NHS trusts are now proactively contacting patients who have been waiting over 40 weeks*, and do not have an appointment date within the next eight weeks, to consider their options to see if they could be seen sooner at a different hospital. (*some clinical exclusions apply).

Eligible patients will be contacted directly by the NHS trust or independent sector provider they are currently under the care of.

Please do not contact your GP practice or NHS hospital proactively regarding this offer.

Eligible patients will be provided with more information in regards to the process when they are contacted by their hospital.