Supporting the flow of patient care from hospital to home (2019)

Summary

HomeLink Healthcare (HLHC) has been providing clinical care in the home with Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NNUHT) since January 2019, to release in-patient bed capacity and improve patient choice. The two organisations have co-created the service, NNUH at Home, creating additional capacity and promoting improvements in patient flow from hospital to home. A key feature of NNUH at Home is that it compliments and integrates with existing services, rather than replicating those already in place.

Content

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital introduced NNUH at Home in January 2019 as part of a pilot project. NNUH is working in partnership with HomeLink Healthcare to deliver this service, which will benefit patients by supporting them to leave hospital as soon as they are clinically stable.

Some clinically selected patients are able to go home to recover for the last few days of their acute episode of care. These patients remain under the care of the hospital and will be supported at home with bespoke care services such as therapy, nursing care, personal care and IV antibiotics.

Patients are able to complete the remainder of their care in the comfort of their own homes, with the full support of their medical consultant and the NNUH and HomeLink teams.

The NNUH at Home team comprises of nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and Healthcare Support Workers.

Patients transferred to the NNUH at Home service will remain under the care of their hospital consultant until they are formally discharged by the hospital to their GP at the end of their agreed length of stay.

NNUH at Home will complements existing NHS community services.