Hospital at Home service to support more patients to avoid hospital admissions in Sheffield
The scheme provides treatments like IV therapy, blood tests and rapid assessments, helping reduce unnecessary admissions and freeing up hospital beds.
Last updated 13 hours ago
A “Hospital at Home” service in Sheffield is expanding, giving frail patients over 65 access to hospital-level care without leaving their homes.
The scheme provides treatments like IV therapy, blood tests and rapid assessments, helping reduce unnecessary admissions and freeing up hospital beds.
Jean Collier, 87, who started to experience painful swelling after being diagnosed with stroke-induced blood pressure, is one of the most recent patients to benefit from the service.
The great-grandmother, from Woodthorpe, spent four days in hospital following a stroke. While in hospital she was given new medication to treat her high blood pressure – but within two weeks of returning home her legs had ballooned.
Her doctor organised blood tests, and with her fluid retention and kidney test results coming back as abnormal, her doctor called her into the local surgery.
“My GP was very worried with the state of my legs and said I should be back in hospital, but my stats were OK. She’d heard about the Hospital at Home programme, but had not used it yet, so she phoned them while I was there. They said they could help and first thing the next morning I had a prompt assessment at home. They came every day for six days to make sure I could get about and was safe, and they did a check on me every day with the hospital doctors.”
Sarah Jenkins, Deputy Medical Director for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and lead for the service, said:
“We are delighted that our ‘Hospital at Home’ service is supporting more patients to stay healthy in the comfort of their own homes when it is safe to do so. The initiative also strengthens the renewed focus on shifting care to the community and builds on research that shows elderly patients recover more quickly and effectively in familiar environments. Staying at home will also reduce travel burden for patients, families and carers, saving time and cost, whilst also freeing up beds for other patients who do need to be in hospital.”