NHS System Pressures

Help us to help you

Devon’s acute hospitals and ambulance service are extremely busy, with people waiting a very long time in emergency departments to be seen and treated.

The local NHS, including South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, is appealing for people to choose the most appropriate service for their needs – to ensure people who need life-threatening and critical care can be treated as quickly as possible.

What people can do to help

Try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you come down with a winter bug and do not feel well enough to do your normal activities. Follow simple self-care tips from www.nhs.uk and family or friends can get good advice from the community pharmacy – a great first port of call.

Devon’s NHS is here to help you, but we need everyone to help us by using the most appropriate service for their condition:

  • If you’re ill or injured, it’s not life threatening and you’re unsure where to turn, use 111.nhs.uk or call 111 for advice. The 111 phone service can book you into NHS services if needed
  • Please only call 999 or visit the emergency department if you have need help for a life-threatening or critical condition. This includes chest pain, if you are having trouble breathing, a stroke, if someone is unconscious or has severe bleeding which won’t stop; having a fit that does not stop; a severe allergic reaction or have been involved in a serious incident like a road traffic accident.
  • Urgent treatment centres (UTC) and minor injury units (MIU) are open, and nurses can treat burns, broken or fractured bones, sprains and strains, and anything that needs stitching. You’ll also be seen far quicker than waiting in an emergency department – visit hospital websites to see how long you will have to wait.

Opening times:

  • Newton Abbott urgent treatment centre is open from 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week.
  • Totnes minor injury unit is open from 8am to 5pm, 7 days a week.
  • Cumberland Urgent Treatment Centre, Plymouth 8am-6pm
  • Tavistock Minor Injury Unit 9am-5pm
  • South Hams Kingsbridge Minor Injury Unit 8.30am-530pm
  • Tiverton Urgent Treatment Centre 8am-8pm
  • Honiton community hospital MIU is open every day, 8am-8pm

If you’re ill and it’s not life threatening, please call your GP first. Please use 111.nhs.uk if it can’t wait until you see your GP.

Pharmacists are highly trained clinicians and can give you advice and treatment for coughs, colds, upset tummies, sticky red eyes, rashes and other aches and pains.

Please don’t come to our hospitals if you have Covid, flu, or norovirus (also known as the winter vomiting bug). These viruses can spread very quickly and can make the people we’re caring for – and our staff – very ill. If you do come to hospital, please wear a face mask, and wash your hands well and regularly.