NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to roll out innovative care at home packages to relieve pressure on hospitals and patients

The health board's 'home first response service' was launched in November last year and offers a tailored care plan for each patient that can be delivered in a home or community environment.

And it is set to be rolled out across the health board.

By receiving care at home, the service is particularly helpful to elderly patients, where treatment at home provides significant benefits - increasing recovery time, preserving mobility and reducing the chance of delirium.

As part of the rollout, specially trained HSCP staff have been recruited and embedded alongside acute frailty teams at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.

A total of 11 specialist frailty practitioners have now been recruited as the service continues to expand and further integrate with the acute services across hospital sites.

This helps limit admissions, improve early discharges and support anticipatory care planning.

Susanne Millar, chief officer for Glasgow City HSCP, said: “By building a more integrated service across acute and community, we’ve been able to ensure a number of frail patients have been able to avoid a hospital stay altogether.

“This benefits both the patient, who receives treatment from the comfort of home, and the hospital, which now has some additional capacity to look after other patients requiring urgent care.

“Patient feedback so far has been largely positive and with additional staff coming on board in coming months, Home First’s important role in supporting our patients to get the best care possible for their needs will continue to grow.”

While the service is still in its infancy, results have been overwhelmingly positive, with one in three patients identified in the pilot being discharged from hospital on the same day with a care plan in place at home.

Dr Scott Davidson, deputy medical director for acute services, said: “We want to ensure we’re able to provide a more seamless approach to care where our patients receive the most appropriate type of treatment as soon as possible.”