Hospital at Home treats hundreds of patients in the comfort of their own home

Hundreds of patients in Worcestershire have received hospital-level care in their own homes over the past six months through a new Hospital at Home service.

As well as allowing suitable patients to continue their treatment from the comfort of their own home rather than staying in hospital, the service has freed up more than 1,800 days of hospital bed space.

One patient who has benefited from the service is David Sargeant, from Worcester, who was admitted to Worcestershire Royal Hospital after becoming seriously ill with pneumonia.

After spending nearly five days in hospital receiving oxygen and intravenous antibiotics, David was offered the opportunity to continue his recovery through Hospital at Home.

David said: “Nobody wants to be in hospital, but I felt safe there because I was still feeling so unwell. I wanted to come home, but I was anxious about whether I was ready.”

After discussing the service with the team, David chose to continue his treatment at home, where he received regular visits and support from the Hospital at Home team.

He continued: “I remember the first day when the doorbell rang and I opened the door to find this friendly, caring nurse who came into my home to care for me and that is exactly what happened. The time and conversations we had were just as valuable as taking my antibiotics.

“What this experience gave me was a completely safe pathway from my hospital bed to my living room,” he added. “It gave me the confidence to come home. I felt safe, secure and looked after, and I felt like an equal partner in my care.

“I am deeply proud of our NHS, they put me back together again, and I want to say a heartfelt thank you to everybody involved in my care.”

Hospital at Home is run jointly by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and forms an important element of a wider series of measures put in place across the health and care system to help ease hospital pressures and improve patient flow.  

Johanna James, Community Services Manager for Single Point of Access and Hospital at Home at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, said: “We are really proud of how the service has developed over the last year. We have been able to safely deliver acute level care to a large number of patients and the feedback from them has been overwhelmingly positive to date. We look forward to developing the service further and being a key part in reducing pressures in the Acute hospitals & supporting patients in the own homes where possible.”

Daniel Hastie, Associate Chief Nursing Officer for Urgent and Emergency Care Place Based Transformation at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said “We know that many people recover better when they are in the comfort and familiarity of their own home, surrounded by the people and things that matter most to them. Hospital at Home allows us to provide safe, high-quality care in that environment, without compromising on the standard of treatment patients receive.”

“The success of this service is built on the close partnership between our acute and community teams. By working together, we are able to deliver responsive, personalised care that supports patients to recover safely at home while ensuring hospital care is available for those who need it most.”

Hospital at Home is suitable for patients who still need hospital-level care but are well enough to receive it safely at home. The service supports people with a range of conditions, including breathing problems such as COPD, infections requiring antibiotics, heart failure, and frailty and falls.

Every patient is individually assessed to ensure Hospital at Home is the right option for them. By combining face-to-face clinical care with remote monitoring and rapid access to specialist advice, we can support people to recover safely at home while maintaining the same high standards of care they would expect in hospital. Depending on their condition, care can include daily clinical reviews, blood tests, ECGs, medication support, IV antibiotics, mobility assessments, bladder scans and remote monitoring.