Care Closer to Home (CCH) supports patients to stay well by caring for them at home, in a place they call home or in their local community, if it is safe to do so.
The aim is to provide the care and support needed to keep patients at home and out of hospital wherever possible in familiar surroundings close to family and friends. It will also ensure that if patients go to hospital, they are able to return home sooner, by providing community support as required.
Patients will receive more responsive and personalised care, shaped by what matters to them. They will also be empowered to make informed decisions and to help design their own care.
The top three priorities for Care Closer to Home are:
- to improve the quality of care
- to improve patient experience – working with patients to meet their needs
- to deliver better value for the money invested in our NHS care and support services.
A number of organisations and services are working together to deliver Care Closer to Home including:
- NHS organisations
- GPs
- Local authorities
- Community services
- Community mental health services
- Prevention teams
- Community care teams
- Adult social care
- Care homes
- Home-care services
Also, voluntary organisations local to Lincolnshire including:
- St Barnabas
- The Butterfly Hospice
- Thorpe Hall
- St Andrews Hospice
- The Spalding Hospice foundation
As well as support from national organisations such as Marie Curie and MacMillan Cancer Support.
Patients should expect to experience joined up working by all health and care services involved in their care where everyone fully understands their previous and ongoing contact with different care and support services. Patients will also have access to a wide range of professionals and services in their home or their local community. To do this we will:
- provide integrated care within the patient’s community. This will bring together GPs, community health and social care, the voluntary sector, supported by specialist advice, to manage the local population’s health proactively and comprehensively. We will also co-ordinate care better across different services and organisations
- provide dedicated support for patients who frequently attend A&E departments so that they can be signposted to other services that will be able to offer additional treatment and support if required.
- know that sometimes patients may need an urgent support to be able to continue to stay at home and avoid going to hospital. Patients can be assessed, and care and support services will be identified to enable them to remain safe and well in the comfort of their own home.
- improve support for patients who have experienced heart failure by providing services and the necessary equipment at home or in their local community where safe to do so. This will include local rapid access cardiac clinics as well as heart failure virtual wards in the patient’s own home.
- want to provide co-ordinated delivery of care and support that aims to achieve the best possible quality of life for patients of any age who are in the last weeks of life, and to help with their concerns and those of families, friends, and carers.
- make sure that patients are supported to make an active recovery at, or as close to, home as possible, and experience an easy move between hospital and their home. We will listen to them, their family, doctors, and carers, and work together along with care teams in the patient’s community so they have a positive experience and achieve what is most important to them whilst regaining and maintaining their independence.
Patients are the most important partners, and their involvement is crucial to the success of Care Closer to Home. Evidence shows that people do better mentally and physically if they can be cared for in or close to home by health and care staff based in the community. When admitted to hospital, older people can lose their independence and can find it harder to return home.
They may also develop further health issues because of changing their regular routine. Care Closer to Home will mean that patients will receive more responsive and personalised care, driven by what matters to them. They will also be empowered to make informed decisions and to design their own care.
Patients should expect to experience joined up working by all health and care services involved in their care where everyone fully understands their previous and ongoing contact with different care and support services. Patients will also have access to a wide range of professionals and services in their home or their local community.
Yes. Patients will be given a greater involvement when they want it, in decisions about their own care. They will liaise with staff to help co-design their own care and support plan. This personalised approach will focus on enabling people to take greater control of their own health. Patient involvement is crucial to ensure the right services are put in place to improve patient care in Lincolnshire.
Some of the Care Closer to Home services are available now and some are at the planning and implementation stage and will be available soon.
Some services are available in certain locations in Lincolnshire now with a view to rolling them out across the county at a later date once the infrastructure has been set up.
Patients will be advised by their clinician about the services when they are available and if they are appropriate for them.