A scheme to improve support for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) patients who may need therapy and social care support upon discharge has been nominated for a prestigious national award.
East Lancashire Hospital Trust and Lancashire County Council have been shortlisted for the 'Health Service Journal' (HSJ) Awards for their joint work on the 'Home First' programme.
Home First means that residents are taken home for social care and therapy assessments as soon as they are medically fit and no longer need to be in hospital. Social workers and therapists are scheduled to meet people as they arrive home to assess their needs and work together to arrange the most appropriate support to enable them to remain there.
The advantage with this integrated approach is that Lancashire county council social workers and community team members can get a better idea of an individual's specific requirements by seeing them in their own homes, rather than undertaking assessments in the hospital environment. It also reduces the risk that a person will lose some of their abilities and mobility by staying too long in hospital where they may become inactive.
'Home First' is one of the key measures that has helped to reduce the number of days people are delayed in hospital. Besides the positive impact for individuals it also means hospital beds are freed up for those people who may need to be admitted more urgently.
County Councillor Graham Gooch, Lancashire County Council's cabinet member for adult services, said: "We've worked very closely with our colleagues at ELHT to improve support for patients who may need social care when they leave hospital. Home First is a key part of our plans and I'm pleased for the staff who developed and operate the service, that they have been recognised by being shortlisted for this HSJ award.
"Despite the challenges the NHS and local government face and the high demands for our services, in East Lancashire we've been able to reduce the number of days people have to stay on hospital wards because of delay. These are known as Delayed Transfers of Care and we've been able to reduce the number of days awaiting assessment, which are attributable to social care, by 83% between April 2017 and July 2018.
"Home First is one of the measures that's helped us achieve this.
"Our social workers who support patients after a stay in hospital do a superb job. They've worked tirelessly to make improvements and the fact we've been nominated for this award is a real credit to them.
"This scheme is a great example of the work we do together with the NHS to improve people's health and wellbeing."
John Bannister, Director of Operations for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "While ‘Home First’ is a relatively new initiative developed jointly by Lancashire County Council and East Lancashire Hospitals staff, it is already proving to be a great success. Social care and hospital staff are working very well together and the end result is a shorter hospital stay and improved discharge for our patients. We are delighted the team have been nominated for this award, which is recognition of the great joint work they are doing.”
Home First is one of 10 schemes to be nominated under the 'Improved Partnerships between Health and Local Government' category of the HSJ Awards.
For more information, visit https://awards.hsj.co.uk/