Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) South Locality teams have been running an innovative service that supports and improves patients’ health and wellbeing while keeping them in their own homes for longer.

To date, 594 acute hospital bed days have been saved thanks to a test of change launched in January 2022, which provides hospital level treatment to patients with acute illnesses in their own homes. 

The ‘Hospital at Home’ service is currently being offered in the South Locality of Glasgow with numbers set to increase as the programme rolls out beyond the South of the city. 
The short-term targeted health intervention aims to keep patients out of hospital by providing the same level of high-quality multi-disciplinary care that they would receive as inpatients in hospital.

Eligible patients are identified either through their GP or from the acute receiving wards for on-going acute level care at home. Patients must be over the age of 65 to qualify for the service and there are inclusion and exclusion criteria to guide these referrals. 

The service is discussed with the patient and their family and they, along with the GP or Hospital-based team, make a shared decision on referral into the service. 

Upon referral the patient is assessed by the nurse-led service and their care is managed with the support of the Multi-disciplinary Team whose members include an Occupational Therapist, Pharmacist, Pharmacy Technician, GP and Medicine for the Elderly Physician who meet virtually, or face-to-face, to discuss each patient daily.  

From there, the team can access hospital-level tests as well as providing urgent hospital-level care such as delivery of intravenous fluids, antibiotics and oxygen. Sharing these decisions with the patient and their family ensures that the team reduces unwanted admission to hospital and the complications that admission can bring. This personalised approach to patient care allows the patient to discuss what matters to them and their priorities for the future. 

A family member of a Hospital at Home patient said: “My mother took unwell again and was referred for the second time to Hospital at Home Team. Once again they provided a first rate service, every member of the team was courteous, professional and friendly. They understood fully the issues and problems and dealt with these promptly giving reassurance to my mother at all times.”

Chris Rowley, Hospital at Home Service Manager, said: “This is a service that helps to cut down on admissions to acute hospital beds, which are under significant pressure. Our teams have been working in partnership to develop this service and by doing so they are positively affecting people’s lives. We hope to be able to expand this service citywide soon”.

The aim is for the test of change is to be rolled out to other areas within our HSCP and then subsequently across the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area in the coming months, subject to successful evaluation.

For more information on the service please contact us via email ggc.hospitalathomesouth@ggc.scot.nhs.uk  or telephone 07971234257.