People requiring medical assistance in Blackburn with Darwen could now be cared for in their own home thanks to an expansion of a two-hour Urgent Community Response pathway which aims to reduce admissions and wait times.
The service, already available for East Lancashire residents, will now be offered to Blackburn with Darwen residents attending the Emergency Department, identifying those who are able to be assessed and treated at home, all within a two-hour time frame. This new innovation will be managed through a Single Point of Access for both East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen patients, enabling them to receive the care they need quickly at home rather than at hospital, if appropriate.
Tony McDonald, Executive Director of Integrated Care, Partnerships and Resilience at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We are delighted to be able to launch this new pathway in partnership with Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust and our Clinical Commissioning colleagues. The service will now be offered to Blackburn with Darwen residents as well as East Lancashire patients who require a rapid response home visit from the Intensive Home Support Service and Rapid Assessment Teams which will free up space within our Emergency Departments and beds on our wards.”
“This new pathway is a vital asset to our ‘Why Not Home, Why Not Today’ campaign which focuses on ensuring patients are discharged as soon and as safely as possible or are supported to stay at home in the first place. As we experience one of the busiest winter periods the NHS has ever faced, this pathway along with the new campaign will enable our colleagues to provide Safe, Personal and Effective care to patients both at hospital and at home.”
Tanya Hibbert, Director of Operations at Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust, added: “We are really pleased to be able to expand our service offer to the Emergency Department around a two-hour urgent community response as this will be a great quality improvement for our residents in Blackburn with Darwen”.
Talking about the new response, Dr Mark Dziobon, local GP and Medical Director for the Pennine Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) said:
“The pressure on our hospital and our GP services is continuing to be immense. As a result of this our NHS services are seeing and treating a lot of ill people, a significant number of whom attend hospital emergency and urgent care services when they could perhaps be assessed and cared for in the comfort of their own home in the first instance. We know that hospitals are often very busy and for some people it can be difficult to make arrangements to get to the hospital - so what could be better than being assessed and cared for in your own home, with the reassurance of contact from a health professional? This is a fantastic modern and helpful service for the vast majority of Blackburn with Darwen residents”.
