Boosting Capacity, Speeding Up Discharge and Reducing Avoidable Admissions

The latest NHS strategy to combat the rising strain on health services involves a threefold approach:

• Boosting capacity
• Speeding up discharge
• Reducing avoidable admissions

As NHS Trusts look to use their remaining budget allocations for 2022/23, these three aims will help Trust managers and procurement teams prioritise their spend.

Boosting Capacity

The call for more equipment and resources to tackle the pandemic fallout has never been greater.

A £1bn investment has just been commissioned by the government, and the headline figures announced are 5,000 new beds to increase capacity by 5% and 800 new ambulances.

As procurement directors have their pens poised to buy more equipment, value for money and longevity will be some of the main objectives running through their mind when deciding where to channel their investment.

An increasing number of ambulance trusts are being backed up by the fire service, helping to increase capacity further. Hull CCG piloted a new FIRST response team utilising the Fire Service and Raizer Lifting Chair to relieve pressure on the ambulance service.

Speeding Up Discharge

Bed blocking has been a real issue that takes resource and ingenuity to handle. A combination of strategies is most effective for hospital trusts, as the success of one strategy can create gains in other areas.

Some of the key strategies being implemented to speed up discharge and create more capacity include:

• Virtual Wards
• New Rehabilitation and Physio Services
• Reducing Inpatient Falls

Virtual Wards

The creation of virtual wards has been a resounding success, where patients needing ongoing care can access expert care from the central hospital team whilst in the comfort of their own home or community care home. A key to this has been the use of digital technologies that allow the nursing team to monitor their vital signs remotely.

Also crucial to the success of this ongoing scheme is adequate equipment. Opera beds are the perfect solution for a virtual care environment, having all the necessary clinical features but with a homely look suitable for a domestic care setting.

New Rehabilitation and Physio Services

The right equipment has never been more important to help patients rehabilitate faster and ensure they continue to rehabilitate in the right way when they have been discharged from hospital care.

Our Lento Mobile and Lento Bariatric rise and recline chairs make it easier than ever before to move patients of all conditions and sizes out of bed and into comfortable seating. Removeable sides make bed-to-chair transfers easier and the graded vertical rise and Sara Stedy compatibility make sit-to-stand infinitely more manageable for both carer and patient.

The StairTrainer has been a refreshing solution for hospital physio teams, providing a graded, tailored step-practice that can be carried out in the gym or chosen location. Results have shown that it speeds up the rehabilitation process, as the step height can be set to the right level at the beginning of the recovery program and incremental gains can be made quicker.

Improving access to rehabilitation and physio services is a pivotal issue, because the achievement of this will have a follow-through effect in boosting capacity and improving A&E wait times.

Reducing Inpatient Falls

Patients falling in hospital has been a growing issue, costing the NHS an annual £630m. Rather than mostly occurring in rehabilitation wards as you would expect when patients are getting back on their feet, 80% of inpatient falls occur in acute care when patients have just had emergency treatment or surgery. Sustaining falls injuries just after an operation is a severe backward step for patients, and compounds the capacity problem even further.

Prevention strategies include the Raizer for non-injured fallers, but most critically in terms of prevention the HipGuard is a very effective strategy. This is an inflatable belt that activates in the event of a fall, cushioning the faller and significantly reducing the chance of hip fractures or other injuries.

Reducing Avoidable Admissions

The speed of response will be a critical factor for ambulance teams, and as 800 new ambulances hit the road the key resources at their disposal will be training and having the right equipment. The goal is an average response time of 30 minutes, although the metric being called for publicly is the official target of 18 minutes, so there is a lot of progress to be made in this direction.

Ambulance and paramedic crews are turning to the Raizer Lifting Chair as their falls equipment of choice, due to its ease of use, speed and effectiveness in getting someone up from the floor in a safe and hassle-free manner.

Equipping falls responders and care teams in the community will also reduce the strain on the ambulance service and prevent unnecessary admissions that only exacerbate the bed blocking issue. Yorkshire Ambulance Service are just one of the Trusts who have experienced the benefit of equipping care homes with the Raizer to relieve ambulance pressures.

Our Support Services

By partnering with Vivid.Care you will have an array of extra support at your fingertips, through our accumulated experience and wider group services. These are just some of the additional benefits we provide:

• Justification Forms — an essential tool for the procurement process, these take all the hard work out of preparing your requisition for management. We have covered all bases and explain all justifications for our equipment, to help you navigate your internal procurement requirements and speed up the process.
• Webinars and Downloads — access to expert content covering a wide range of healthcare issues specific to hospital care.
• Logistics and Storage Specialists — Dependall are storage and distribution specialists within our company group who provided logistical support for the Nightingale hospital programme and vaccine rollout. They are on hand to deliver and set-up your equipment wherever you need it within the UK.

Summary

As NHS targets and measures are being brought sharply into focus and new strategies are being put in place to achieve these targets, NHS Trusts up and down the country are needing all the resource they can get their hands on.

With the financial year coming to an end on 31 March, this is a call to action for all clinical and procurements teams to allocate their remaining budget funds in the right direction, and put the equipment and resources they need in place now to meet the challenges in the coming months.

Contact us today to discuss your requirements, we have stock available for immediate despatch, and a range of support services available including staff training and aftersales support for you to get the maximum benefit from your equipment.