Shropshire community-based care scheme having 'positive impact'

Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group's Care Closer to Home aims to improve the health and social care outcomes for people over the age of 65.

It intends to help people get the right care and support they need before becoming ill so that they stay well for longer and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

It brings health, mental health, social care, dementia and living support to people in their communities, and into people’s own homes.

Between August and October, the teams prevented 30 ambulance call outs, 46 patient trips to A&E, 44 hospital admissions, and 12 hospital readmissions through alternative and preventative care, and support in the community and at home.

Those involved in the programme include Shropshire Council, Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust, Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust and charity organisations.

In the parts of the scheme already up and running, two elements have achieved particular successes, health chiefs say.

The frailty intervention team, based in A&E, is a small specialist group that provides a fast-track service to get frailer patients over 75 quickly assessed, treated and discharged safely back into their homes or an appropriate care setting.

Health bosses say it has been so successful that it is now running five days a week at both the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

A pilot scheme is also under way in eight areas of Shropshire and is led by a team of health and social care professionals to test out a new way of reaching people sooner and providing care and support in a different way.

These teams are tasked with developing tailored care plans by pulling information from across health and social care providers.

The care could include living support as well as nursing and therapy.

The teams, who have been in place since late August, have already worked with and are supporting more than 200 people.

Of these, 132 have been helped to stay out of hospital with preventative care and support provided in the community or in their own homes.

It is intended that the service will eventually be rolled out to the rest of the county.

Dr Julian Povey, chair of Shropshire CCG, said: “This is a massive transformation programme and already we have come a long way in creating a new vision for the future of healthcare in Shropshire.

“By working with partners and bringing care closer to home we have seen a number of successes since the programme’s beginnings which are making a real impact on the care local people receive.

“We look forward to what 2020 holds in the next stages of this exciting programme.”

Visit shropshireccg.nhs.uk/get-involved/engagement-and-consultation/shropshire-care-closer-to-home for more details.