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Latest group news
December 2011
GP practices and many pharmacies will be...
September 2011
Devon Doctors Ltd has been highlighted...
About us
Devon Doctors Ltd and its subsidiaries Devon Health Ltd and Halton Health Ltd are social enterprise organisations. We exist to benefit the local communities we serve. Any profits are put back into our health services. We’re run by healthcare professionals, owned by GP practices, and we don’t have shareholders.
Devon Doctors Ltd is owned by every GP practice in Devon. The practices vote for a GP to represent their area on the Board.
Click here to find out which local GPs are on our Board.
Devon practices have a direct influence over the service we provide which means better continuity between daytime and urgent out-of-hours primary care.
Devon Doctors' urgent out-of-hours service consistently meets the
Department of Health national quality requirements.
In some areas we exceed these requirements:
• We aim to respond to calls for all palliative care patients within 20 minutes and a home visit within one hour.
- • We ask our drivers to phone ahead with an ETA to all patients requiring a home visit.
We continue to look at ways we can further improve the service. If you have any suggestions please email ddocs.patientfeedback@nhs.net
The latest GP Patient Survey results place Torbay patients 9th, Plymouth patients 11th and Devon patients 16th for satisfaction with their out-of-hours provider, out of 161 PCT areas in the country. The satisfaction rate is 74 per cent compared with the national average of 63 per cent.
The Primary Care Foundation’s 2009 benchmarking exercise into out-of-hours services reported Devon Doctors to be among the best out-of-hours providers in the country and to be good value for money.
Patient surveys carried out by the Department of Health and Primary Care Foundation in 2009 showed that patient satisfaction with our out-of-hours service was above the national average (73 per cent compared with 66 per cent), and patients in the Torbay PCT area were the most satisfied in the country.
In 2008 the Healthcare Commission investigation into urgent care services gave Devon Doctors the best scores in the country. We achieved an ‘outstanding’ level in several areas including telephone access and times for face-to-face assessments.
In 2006 the National Audit Office highlighted our out-of-hours service as an example of good practice, placing it within the top 10% of services nationally.
In 1996 some of the GPs across Devon formed a GP co-operative called Devon Doctors on Call (DDoC). DDoC organised the out-of-hours responsibility of local GPs and out-of-hours sessions among colleagues from the area.
In 2004 a new GP contract passed responsibility for out-of-hours cover to Primary Care Trusts. DDoC became Devon Doctors Ltd, a social enterprise organisation owned by Devon’s GP practices. Devon Doctors Ltd was commissioned by the county’s Primary Care Trusts NHS Plymouth, NHS Devon and Torbay Care Trust to provide the out-of-hours service in Devon. Since then it has undergone stringent selection processes to successfully retain the out-of-hours contract.