Overnight care at home piloted in Scotland to reduce bed-blocking

A new overnight home care service, is being piloted by NHS Highland and Scottish Care, in a drive to reduce the amount of bed-blocking in hospitals.

Three local independent sector providers, Gateway, Castle Care and Eildon, are working alongside NHS Highland and Scottish Care to provide this one-year pilot.

NHS Highland’s special projects lead Jean-Pierre Sieczkarek said: “The overnight service is a response to the need for support during the night to allow safe discharge from hospital where required, to respond to social care interventions such as falls and help calls and support people to be safely supported in their own home”.

According to figures published by National Services Scotland, 40,246 days were spent in hospital by people delayed in their discharge in February 2017. Figures released from NHS England on 13 April 2017 reveals there were 184,900 total delayed days in February 2017 alone.

In response to such high figures, the trial has a threefold aim of addressing current social care woes. These are primarily, reducing bed-blocking, unnecessary new hospital admissions, and the admission of new patients to residential care who, if the scheme proved successful, could remain independent in their own homes.

Mr Sieczkarek, added: “We are hopeful that this type of intervention will take pressure off our hospitals by reducing the number of admissions and speeding up discharge for patients. We anticipate that this one-year pilot will prove to be successful and it will expand out with the Inverness city boundaries.

“We are confident that this initiative can prevent people from being placed in residential care, when support overnight could allow them the choice of returning home.”

The trial is already taking place in Inverness and will be rolled out to the surrounding areas of Inverness over the next year. If the pilot is successful, NHS Highland will extend the scheme to the Scottish Highlands.

Carolanne Mainland, development officer for Scottish Care, which represents the independent care sector, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with NHS Highland and three local independent providers to establish this exciting pilot project.

“The service will ensure a collaborative approach to the delivery of care at home services across the Inverness area during the evening and is an excellent example of partnership working to deliver better care in the north of Scotland.”