Transforming intermediate care (IC) services in Doncaster
Scheme
Who?
Doncaster Borough Council
Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals
Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber Foundation Trust
What
The delivery model will have a single point of access and triage for all intermediate care services. The focus is on a locality-based Home First Service that will maintain the person at home, avoiding unnecessary hospital admission and providing in-reach into
Why?
Planning for an improved IC service began after Doncaster carried out an intermediate care review. The findings included:
- lots of duplication and some gaps in provision
When?
Phase 1: Review of IC: 2015–early 2016.
Phase 2: Designing a new model for IC: new model agreed in September 2016.
Phase 3: Testing a new model for intermediate care: November 2016– April 2017.
Phase 4: Full implementation: April 2018 to date.
How?
The trusted assessor’s role is to carry out clinical work and to develop and evaluate the service. It includes community physiotherapy and occupational therapy in-reaching.
The role works into the ED and AMU
Challenges
There were a number of challenges to setting up the scheme:
- limited resources – only one Band 7 therapist (job share) was employed and the role includes service development, resulting in clinical hours being part-time
Impact
There has been positive feedback from people who use services, families and professionals. Outcomes include:
- despite the limited resources of the trial, a significant impact on hospital admission avoidance
Case study
Lucy, aged 82, was admitted to ED with a suspected cerebrovascular accident (CVA). She was having trouble standing and was leaning to one side.
Lucy’s son explained while attending