A Single Point of Access scheme in Norfolk and Waveney, providing a hub through which clinicians from different services work together to refer patients, has reportedly helped 90 percent of referred patients avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
Through the scheme, clinicians from East of England Ambulance Service make a phone call to speak with a clinician at the hub and determine the most suitable pathway for patients, review medication requirements and book patients onto a virtual ward pathway.
Pete Bumphrey, business & partnerships lead for the East of England Ambulance Service, said: “It’s another conversation that our clinicians can have to be certain about what is the best way to treat a patient, and the doctors are working from the same location as the urgent community care services are based, so they can make decisions about capacity based on real-time information.”
A two-month trial saw 90 percent of patients avoid admission to hospital, with the ICB highlighting the value of the scheme in helping to meet increased winter demand. Ross Collett, director of urgent and emergency care, spoke of the value the scheme could offer to ambulance crews in allowing patients to be treated quicker “so that they can get back out on the road and help other patients who require emergency care”.
The hub is now working with Virtual Wards, Network Escalation Avoidance Team, and Urgent GP services and its aiming to increase support for care home patients, the ambulance service, and acute hospital trusts.
Highlighting alternative patient pathways
In October, we were joined by a panel of leaders from the health sector to discuss new models of care and pathway transformation; the role of technology in supporting the move from reactive to proactive care; and how a system approach can accelerate preventative care.
Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust recently reported on the progress of its community virtual ward service a year after launch, with the trust highlighting how the service has admitted and discharged 1,315 patients in that time.
Elsewhere, North West London ICS has set out the strategic approach for its integrated neighbourhood teams, with a “no wrong front door” approach undertaken which will see all services accessible digitally, via telephone or in person.
Norfolk and Waveney
In the summer, the ICB shared an update on its five-year Joint Forward Plan, including how data is being used to measure progress and completion of ambitions. On improving urgent and emergency care, the updated highlighted further progress to be made to improve emergency ambulance response times, expand virtual ward services, reducing length-of-stay rates in hospitals, and “effectively” utilising capacity across all health system partners.
We also highlighted the ICB’s plans for the provision of a digital offer for children and young people’s mental health; and shared an update on plans to implement a shared EPR across Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals, James Paget University Hospitals, and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust.
