Our organisation, strategy, and values
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB) is one of the largest hospital providers in the NHS, employing 14,500 people across five hospitals and a range of other community sites.
UHDB in numbers: what we deliver every year
- We serve a population of more than one million people
- A budget of £1.2 billion
- 115,000 inpatients each year
- 53,000 operations each year
- 275,000 people attending our A&Es each year
- 9,000 babies born each year
An introduction to UHDB
The Trust was following established in 2018 following the merger of Derby Teaching Hospitals and Burton Hospitals, and we now provide services from several sites across Derbyshire and Staffordshire:
- Royal Derby Hospital > and Queen’s Hospital Burton > provide a range of acute hospital services, with both sites providing A&E, critical care, inpatient surgical and medical services, paediatrics and maternity care. Royal Derby Hospital also includes the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, which offers a full range of services in dedicated child and family friendly environments.
- Samuel Johnson Community Hospital > in Lichfield offers a range of inpatient and outpatient services, including daycase surgery, renal dialysis and rehabilitation services, alongside a Minor Injuries Unit.
- Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital > in Tamworth provides a Minor Injuries Unit, daycase surgery, rehabilitation, community inpatient care, and endoscopy and a range of diagnostic services.
- Florence Nightingale Community Hospital > in Derby provides a range of services including specialist neurological rehabilitation, therapy, stroke rehabilitation, palliative care, outpatients, and imaging and diagnostic services.
We also provide shared services with others, like working with Chesterfield Royal Hospital to provide a joint pathology service across Derbyshire and Staffordshire; and provide outpatient, diagnostic and pathology services from other NHS sites including Ripley Hospital, St. Oswald’s Hospital, Heanor Memorial Health Centre, Long Eaton Health Centre, and Ilkeston Community Hospital.
We have three Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) across Derbyshire and Staffordshire >, offering a range of tests, like x-rays, blood tests, CT and MRI and ultrasound scans - closer to home and in the community.
Working with system partners
We are a part of two Integrated Care Systems (ICS') - Derby and Derbyshire ICS (also known as Joined Up Care Derbyshire) > and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS >.
These systems are local partnerships that bring health and care organisations together to develop shared plans and joined-up services. They are formed by NHS organisations and upper-tier local councils in that area and also include the voluntary sector, social care providers and other partners with a role in improving local health and wellbeing.
With our partners, our aim is to work with local communities to ensure as many people as possible have the best start in life, live well and age well.
How are we improving?
We are constantly exploring ways to adapt and improve to be responsive to the evolving needs of our communities, and the changing health landscape. To help us with this, in 2024, we launched a programme called "Always Improving", which focuses on developing a culture of continuous quality improvement (CQI) across the organisation through a shared set of behaviours, routines, and tools, to guide our approach to improving patient care and colleague experience.
We are learning from other successful organisations and have adopted the new, single, shared NHS improvement approach to build improvement capability and capacity across our workforce.
"Always Improving" is being rolled out to every corner of the organisation and leaders and frontline teams are receiving extensive training to ensure colleagues are empowered and equipped to look for opportunities to improve, test ideas, and use data to learn and evaluate the impact. This might be identifying wasteful processes, removing barriers that stand in the way of good care, or exploring ways to work more efficiently and save time - meaning more time can be spent on patient care.
To set a consistent approach to leadership across the organisation, every senior leader at UHDB has signed up to a development programme > to ensure the way we lead, creates a compassionate and inclusive culture for our colleagues to thrive.
Our strategy
Our bold ambitions are details in our Trust strategy.
Download UHDB Strategy 2024-2030: Our Way to Exceptional Care Together [pdf] 8MB
Our strategy has been developed in response to over 7000 pieces of feedback from colleagues, patients, health and care partners and our local communities, through face to face and online conversations. Collectively, these ambitions and ideas have informed our strategy and we now have a roadmap that details how together, our 14,500 people, and our partners will make UHDB a better place to work, learn and receive care.
"Together, with our partners, we will make a difference through acute and community care that is personalised, preventative and effective for everyone who needs it. We will be an excellent place to work, learn, and receive care by applying the highest level of skill, knowledge, and research."
Exceptional and compassionate care, each and every time has been our mission since we became UHDB in 2019, but this refreshed strategy set out our ambitions and reflects the health and care system that we operate in today.
The strategy is carved up into five key themes, which each have five-year goals.
Our strategy is underpinned by behaviours and values which will help us to support each other to deliver the consistently high-quality care our communities deserve, and to make UHDB a welcoming, inclusive place to work and learn.
