Latest news

Today is World Radiography Day and to celebrate we are shining a light on UHDB’s fantastic radiotherapy department and a new innovative treatment they are delivering to cancer patients in our community.

The team at Royal Derby Hospital have been working hard behind the scenes to introduce a Surface Guided Radiotherapy solution which means patients can now ​still have ​highly precise treatment but will no longer be left with visible tattoos and marks following treatment.

The first patients have received their cataracts procedure at Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital in Tamworth after the newly established service opened its doors.

The team at Royal Derby Hospital’s Emergency Department have been presented with a Monthly Making a Difference Award after glowing feedback after caring for a patient who had suffered a fall. The nomination, which stated the team “deserve a medal, each and every one of you”, praised the ED Team for the care and compassion the patient received when attending the department after what they described as “a bad fall”.

Trigger warning: the below story contains references to stillbirth

A patient who lost her baby at 22 weeks has thanked the midwife who held her hand through the difficult times and was by her side 13 months later when she welcomed her second child.

Becky Wheeler, a community midwife based at Samuel Johnson Community Hospital, has won the Patient Hero award in the monthly Making a Difference Awards after being nominated by her patient Victoria Elliott.

Ward 408 at Royal Derby Hospital have been awarded with one of our monthly Making a Difference Awards for the incredible support they have shown a colleague.

A brand-new mental health support group for male colleagues across Derbyshire will be launched this week as UHDB marks Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month in November.

Clinicians at UHDB have been shortlisted for a national award for their work to establish community breast pain clinics, aimed at providing better care for patients and reducing unnecessary suspected cancer referrals.

Jessica Day was a happy new mum to a baby boy when she found a lump in her breast.

Now she has spoken bravely about her diagnosis with secondary breast cancer and her journey so far with the disease, to raise awareness for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which takes place in October.

Want to get to know some of our #TeamUHDB colleagues a little better? We’ve spoken with RDH’s Frail Elderly Assessment Team (FEAT) for the next instalment of our Meet the Team series.

Mums-to-be in communities around Burton and Derbyshire can now have their baby in a new birthing pool room, which has opened at Queen’s Hospital Burton.

The cutting-edge facility features a fully accessible ergonomic pool, welcoming décor and dimmable LED lighting to help give parents the most relaxing experience possible.

Clinicians at Royal Derby Hospital came together to host a week-long clinic that was able to treat and assess around 400 colorectal patients in a bid to help cut down on patient waiting lists.

Two UHDB colleagues are among the Derbyshire Shared Care Pathology team that have received a Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) Achievement Award 2022.

The awards celebrate excellence in pathology service provision and are given to teams who have achieved above and beyond in areas such as quality improvement, setting up new services, innovation in service delivery, reaching new patient groups, or educating and training staff and students.

For most of the year Abbie Marston works as a registered nurse but since September she has been centred at Royal Derby Hospital’s vaccination hub, offering covid boosters and flu vaccinations to keep UHDB colleagues safe. 

Abbie is just one of UHDB’s super vaccinators, lending her time to the seasonal vaccinations programme which aims to protect our staff with the covid booster and flu vaccinations.

Have you experienced, or declined, an induction of labour in Derbyshire in the last three years? If so, the Derbyshire Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (DMNVP) we wants to hear from you!

A UHDB colleague who went above and beyond in her care of a patient, has been praised by an ex-nurse, who witnessed her compassion, and deemed her worthy of the prestigious Cavell Star award.

Mary White, a former Clinical Nurse Specialist, was a patient on Ward 308 at Royal Derby Hospital in December last year when she first met Senior Sister Mandie Linnington.

UHDB’s Wellbeing Team is celebrating after being shortlisted for two Nursing Times Workforce Awards for their incredible work supporting colleagues across Derbyshire and Staffordshire. The team is in the running to be crowned ‘Workforce Team of the Year’, as well as being shortlisted for their work on the ‘Do Whatever Moves You’ project in the ‘Best Use of Workplace Technology Award’.

Over the coming weekend (22 - 23 October 2022), we will be reconfiguring our assessment units at Royal Derby Hospital to improve the pathway for acute medical patients. 

A huge congratulations to the Estates and Facilities and Patient Experience Team, who were the runners up for the Team of the Year Category at the IHEEM Healthcare Estates 2022.

An innovative new form of radiotherapy that can save the lives of patients with cancer is being rolled out at UHDB, with the Trust being one of only a few centres that can offer this treatment.

Stereotactic Radiotherapy is a ground-breaking treatment which targets bony and nodal oligomets to give cancer patients a better quality of life.

A UHDB consultant who wanted to be able to offer access to a lifechanging device for her patients with type 1 diabetes, has contributed to an innovative research study which has been hugely successful.

Emma Wilmot, Consultant Diabetologist, has been heavily involved in designing and delivering a multi-centre randomised controlled trial called Flash UK.

This Friday 21 October 2022, UHDB will be taking part in Show Racism the Red Card's Wear Red Day. We are urging Trust colleagues across all of our sites to wear red to work on this day, showing our collective support in the ongoing fight against racism in all its forms. 

On Friday 14 October, UHDB held it’s first in-person awards ceremony in three years at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, with 260 members of #TeamUHDB joining in an evening of celebrating exceptional care together.

The glamorous awards ceremony, hosted by local radio DJ Mark O’Sullivan, saw nominees for 10 awards come together to celebrate in what was a night to remember.

One of UHDB’s most prominent fundraisers, Avtar Samrai (Corporate Responsibilities Lead, ISS) organised a visit to Guru Arjan Dev Ji Gurdwara, alongside the EMBRACE Staff Network, Chief Operating Officer Sharon Martin, and Chair of the Trust, Kathy McLean.

The £2.9 million theatre, which is located next to the General Theatres suite, houses state-of-the-art equipment which allows clinicians to carry out more sophisticated, complex vascular and cardiology procedures, such as the insertion of pacemakers.

A former patient returned to thank the ward team who cared for him following an operation to remove a suspected cancer. Mr Vic Deaves brought cakes, flowers, chocolates and bottles of fizz to present to the team on Royal Derby Hospital’s Ward 308 and the surgical team who carried out his procedure as a token of his gratitude for the “wonderful” care he received.

A team who helped support five refugee nurses as they moved from their home in Lebanon to work for UHDB, have been shortlisted for the Best UK Employer of the Year for Nursing Staff Award in this year’s Nursing Times awards.

Colleagues from University Hospitals of Derby and Burton’s (UHDB) are taking part in a ground-breaking national research study into post-operative shoulder rehabilitation following the award of a £1.7million grant by the NIHR.

A Senior Theatre Practitioner who started a career in nursing back in 1980 says she has ‘no regrets’ after spending her working life at UHDB and would “never have wanted to work anywhere else.”

Di Watson is well known at Royal Derby Hospital for her roles throughout the years in gynae theatres. She started as a staff nurse, progressed to Sister and then managed the gynaecology, obstetric and paediatric theatre suites for over 25 years, before stepping down and finishing her career as a Senior Theatre Practitioner.

Kirsty Bishop, a Complimentary Therapist at the Nightingale Macmillan Unit at Royal Derby Hospital, has been awarded with one of our monthly Making a Difference Awards for her brilliant work in the Unit.

UHDB will be hosting a Health Talk to help you find out more about hidden Disabilities and the work taking place within the Trust to support colleagues, patients and visitors who live with a hidden Disability.