Latest news

Staff and patients at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton have extended their congratulations to its oldest volunteer who has turned 95.

Tom Walker, age 95 from Burton, has been volunteering at the Queen’s Hospital Burton for over 20 years, first starting out as a volunteer in 2000.

The retired painter and decorator, initially started out as befriender at Geoffrey Hodges, supporting Ward 41, 42 and 43. Tom then moved across to the main site and helped support on Ward 11 which was the care of the elderly ward at the time, again as a befriender.

The actions of a “one in a million” ICU nurse at Royal Derby Hospital have been praised by the grateful family of a patient who sadly passed away this summer. Nurse Paul Gothard perfectly encapsulated the compassionate nature that we value here at UHDB through the way that he cared for and supported both a patient who was at end of life and his family. From coming up with the idea to create a memory box of little keepsakes for the patient’s granddaughter, to sorting food and drinks for the family and staying late after his shift to make sure they were okay, Paul really went the extra mile.

Early in 2019, the West wing of the George Bryan Centre was destroyed by fire. After the fire, temporary arrangements were put in place. Anyone living in Burton upon Trent, Lichfield, Tamworth and surrounding areas who needed an inpatient stay was admitted to St George’s Hospital in Stafford, and enhanced community mental health services provided support to enable people to stay in their own home.

The team behind an innovative research study which aims to improve the safety of carrying out Aerosol Generating Procedures (AGPs) has been presented with the Annual Making a Difference Award.

BBC Radio Derby are doing a week-long feature this week (11-15 October) to look behind the scenes of the health and social care system across Derbyshire ahead of winter.

The radio station’s mid-morning show with Ian Skye will be interviewing key health figures, including our own Chief Executive Gavin Boyle on Wednesday 13 October at 11:15am.

The ISS Portering Team at Royal Derby Hospital were awarded with the Team of the Year award at last night’s national IWFM Impact awards for providing an exceptional service.

We are a diverse melting pot of many different cultures here at Team UHDB – with each member of our incredible workforce enriching our hospitals in their own way.

This diversity is something that we’re exceptionally proud of at UHDB and is something to be celebrated, so that’s exactly what we’ll be doing all the way through October as part of Black History Month.

From Monday 11 October 2021 the MIU will be open from 8am – 9pm, seven days a week which means the unit will be closing an hour earlier than normal.

The Endoscopy team at Royal Derby Hospital have been honoured with the Trust’s CEO Award for not letting the pandemic hinder them from continuing to provide an outstanding service.

Despite the challenges brought on by Covid-19, the Derby team have never let their standards drop and recently had their JAG accreditation renewed, alongside UHDB’s two other units at Queen’s Hospital Burton and Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital. 

A hyperbaric diving bell used by deep sea divers carrying out work on the ocean floor has been installed at Royal Derby Hospital, as researchers investigate how to carry out more effective CPR in confined spaces.

Here at UHDB, we are a diverse melting pot of many cultures and so we will be celebrating this throughout October by spending each week learning more about Black culture and identity.

This week, we're going to focus on the immense contribution black people have made to healthcare by shining a spotlight on just some of the black leaders who have really made a difference in this field. You can find out more about each of them by clicking the links under their profiles below. 

We are encouraging parents to be aware of the signs of respiratory illnesses in young children, as data from Public Health England (PHE) shows cases are starting to rise in parts of the country.

On 1 September, 1996, the very first paediatric patients moved to the new Derbyshire Children’s Hospital from the old site on North Street.

The brand new site, based on the now Royal Derby Hospital site, was the only entirely new children’s hospital to be built in the UK in the twentieth century

Shortly after the opening at the start of September 1996, Her Majesty the Queen visited staff and patients to officially open the hospital and showed a keen interest in the brand new facility for children and their families across Derbyshire.

Some of the staff who were involved in the move form North Street have reflected on their memories from 25 years ago.

Concessionary rates have been introduced for specific groups of patients and visitors at Queens Hospital and Community Hospitals Samuel Johnson Lichfield and Sir Robert Peel Tamworth.

Want to take the next step in your career?

We have a fantastic opportunity to join our Theatres Team in our first cohort of Apprentice Operating Department Practitioners. We’re looking for people who are motivated and passionate about providing high standards of patient care and want to work towards become becoming a fully qualified ODP.

UHDB’s Annual Members Meeting will once again be held in a virtual format when it takes place later this month – and it is certainly not one to be missed by our Members after the year we’ve had.

Clinicians at UHDB have set up the first service in the region to help to treat patients suffering with the rare condition amyloidosis.

A new digitised process for prescribing and dispensing medications at UHDB is benefiting patients and staff-alike by making it easier than ever for people to receive the right medicines for them.

UHDB is the first Trust in the country to have introduced a ‘closed loop medication supply’ process that better enables clinicians to electronically prescribe patients with the drugs that they need via our Pharmacy department.

Members of UHDB’s Youth Forum have been discussing their thoughts and wishes regarding organ donation, as well as expressing a desire for more attention to be given to the subject as part of their education.

A Sister has been presented with a Monthly Making a Difference Award after the support she gave to her colleagues, patients and their families and other members of the emergency services during a “difficult night shift”

Together We’re Better, the local health and care partnership, is seeking to improve access to urgent and emergency care services by offering the right care in the right place and the right time.

A Nurse who has seen first-hand the life changing impact organ donation can have on the lives of patients has urged people to speak about the subject more to make our wishes known.

Jackie Warren, a registered nurse who has dedicated more than half a century to nursing, is retiring from Queen’s Hospital Burton.

Over the last 51 years Jackie has seen and embraced several changes to the way nursing care is co-ordinated and delivered.

The first cohort of Health Care Assistant (HCAs) students have enrolled onto a new MSc Nursing Degree Apprenticeship at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton.

Clinicians and colleagues at UHDB are calling on our communities to talk to their families about organ donation and leave them certain about their wishes this Organ Donation Week (20 – 26 September).

We’ve been speaking to one of the #UHDBheroes in Pharmacy about why she loves being part of this team, after an exciting new opportunity to join the department opened up this week.

The newest available treatments for people suffering with severe migraines are now being offered at UHDB and are helping to “change the lives” of these patients for the better. Nearly 100 patients with chronic or high frequency episodic migraines have been offered or received a new treatment at the Trust over the last year that has made a huge difference to the vast majority – who had all previously struggled to find a treatment that worked for them.   

The exceptional innovations made to advance clinical trials at UHDB during the pandemic have been recognised nationally – in the same breath as “industry giants” AstraZeneca. UHDB’s Derby Clinical Trials Support Unit (DCTSU) were named runners up for an award at the Association for Clinical Data Management Awards, after coming up with an inventive way of ​ reporting trial data that is simpler and more accurate than what was used before.