Helping keep local patients safe and well at home

NHS Western Isles has launched a new short-film and website to highlight the work of its local face-to-face Integrated Front Door Service (IFDS), which provides hospital-level urgent assessment, treatment and support to patients safely within their own home, ensuring they receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. Both can be viewed at www.wihb.scot.nhs.uk/our-services/integrated-front-door-service.

Working across community, hospital and emergency services, the Integrated Front Door approach helps identify the most appropriate pathway unique to each patient, including opportunities to provide assessment, treatment and ongoing care closer to home, where this is safe and appropriate, whilst reducing unnecessary hospital admissions.

This can be particularly beneficial for patients who prefer to stay in and be treated within their own home, help patients leave hospital earlier to finish recovering in their own surroundings, lower the risk of obtaining hospital-acquired infections and, particularly with vulnerable or frail patients, reduce their loss of independence through deconditioning.

The IFDS is made up of Hospital at Home, Urgent & Unscheduled Care (U&UC), Frailty Practitioners, Acute Assessment Unit (AAU), as well as working in partnership with many other agencies and services. This includes GPs, Community Nursing, Scottish Ambulance Service, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, and the voluntary sector.

Over the last six months, the service has demonstrated its impact across the Western Isles:

• 82 A&E attendances avoided, with patients seen by the Scottish Ambulance Service supported and managed at home through collaboration with IFDS.
• 1,563 days of acute hospital-level care delivered at home through Hospital at Home.
• 97 Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments completed, helping identify individual patient needs and connect people with appropriate services and support.

The approach aims to avoid unnecessary journeys and A&E attendances, prevent avoidable hospital admissions, identify frailty and wider care needs earlier, and reduce pressure on hospital services and inpatient beds. Working together to provide more joined-up care.

Gail Black, Integrated Front Door Project Manager, and Janette Murray, Service Manager, Urgent & Unscheduled Care, said: “The support we have received from colleagues as we have developed the Integrated Front Door has been fantastic. It has been great to see teams embracing new ways of working together and we are excited to see the difference this collaboration will make to patient care and experience.”

Further information about the local IFDS can be found on the NHS Western Isles website at www.wihb.scot.nhs.uk/our-services/integrated-front-door-service