Nurses seeing over 700 patients at home every year are helping free up hospital beds
International Nurses’ Day takes place every year on May 12, marking the birth date of Florence Nightingale, and is a celebration of all things nursing.
Nurses are part of an initiative that means over 700 patients a year are being seen in their own homes, meaning they don’t have to spend time in hospital, which is helping free up vital hospital beds and helping give them their independence.
The Hospital@Home service has an incredible 30,000 patient visits a year and is run by Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board, and the seven-day service is proving to be a great hit with patients, who have given 99% positive feedback to it.
The team differ to district nurses who provide patients with routine nursing care, often for long-term health needs.
One of those patients is Jeanette Rod, 73, from Basildon, who if wasn’t receiving care at home would have spent longer in a hospital instead.
She said: “The Hospital@Home team makes life so much easier for me, I just can’t thank them enough for their help and support, what they do really helps me because I can’t get out on my own.
“The nurses can come in and do my blood and leg, without them I'd be stuck in hopsital again if they couldn#t come out to me."
Jeanette has been welcoming Senior Hospital@Home Nurse, Hannah Gee, into her home for over six weeks. Hannah said: “We follow our patients throughout their treatment. We might be visiting to administer antibiotics, but we’ll also check their blood pressure, monitor their bloods and, if I think it’s needed, do a full assessment. We’re in contact with the ward and microbiology teams all the time, so if there’s any concerns we can easily go back and speak to the hospital.
“A typical day can mean seeing patients who need Intravenous antibiotics, injections, bloods, wound care or top to toe assessments. Patients being in their own home means they can keep their own routines, have their families round, go shopping. It just gives the patient back their life. They don’t have to be in hospital for all this treatment, we bring the hospital care to them.”
And if patients have got any concerns regarding their treatments, they can chat to us about that as well, for many patients we are like their friends.
That sentiment is echoed by Jeanette, who said: “What the team do is absolutely amazing and the care that they give is outstanding. This service gives you your life back, the team are very special to me.”