How Health Care at Home Alleviates NHS Bed Blocking
Our Sheffield North office recently began on a large Health Care at Home Package, making it the second of its kind under the care of Home Instead Sheffield and Barnsley.
HCAH provides medical and clinical care to clients in a home setting. It allows people to maintain their independence in their own homes and spaces, reducing the occupation of valuable hospital beds.
With 83.6% of beds occupied in the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and 91.7% in the Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the pressure bed blocking places on the NHS continues. (Figures published 14th November 2023)
In current times where clinical teams and hospital staff are being pushed to their limits, Health Care at Home offers a service where clients can be discharged from hospital and cared for from their own bed at home.
Traditionally, Home Instead has been a companionship and general personal care service, however this package allows for the covering of delegated activities that cross into medical and clinical care.
Our bespoke medical care plans include breathing apparatus such as BiPap, as well as PEG feeding, moving and handling and Cough Assist equipment. Clients receive 1 to 1 care with small, specially trained core teams; this allows for the creation of strong, trusting relationships between a client and their Care Professionals. It also means any signs of deterioration are noticed and responded to quickly.
Client A
We now operate an extremely tailored, 24 hour service for this client in her own home, where we provide moving and handling and respiratory care utilising bespoke clinical equipment.
This HCAH package is tailored exactly to her requirements, and provides a level of consistency and control in the client’s life which she desperately missed since she became unwell.
It has been challenging due to the large demands of the service, but it is outweighed by the reward of sustaining the client’s independence and allowing her to remain at home where she wants to be. Her goal is to avoid being hospitalised for respiratory care and our services support this.
Tracey Howson, Care Manager of the Sheffield North area, is extremely proud of how the service has developed.
“We can keep people at home and out of hospital, which is our company’s core ethos,” she explained. “It’s been so rewarding to see how this package has evolved and now settled. We hope to continue expanding our services in this area and enable more clients to be discharged from hospital and return home where they are happiest.”
