A World War II veteran made it home in time for Remembrance Day when he became the first patient at Nottingham's hospitals to be discharged under a new plan to ease pressure on hospital beds. RAF veteran Caird, whose surname has not been given, was admitted to the Queen’s Medical Centre after having a fall and developing hypothermia.
Nursed back to health, he was medically fit to be discharged but without the Hospital at Home initiative would have had to have remained in hospital until a care package was drawn up. Under Hospital at Home, Caird will now receive two one-hour care visits a day from NUH staff to help his return home.
It meant Caird was able to return home in time to observe a minute's silence on Remembrance Day. “Patients are desperate to go home,” said Bev Brady, lead nurse in clinical care. “We know people recover better when they are in their own environment and this allows them to do so while remaining under our care.”
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Hospital at Home is one of several initiatives commissioned and funded by NUH. One patient going home under the scheme can free up four to five beds to help relieve the pressure on the Emergency Department. Hospital at Home has been in the planning stage for several months. Berman Ward 2 at City Hospital became a “transition ward” last month, for patients who need reduced clinical care but are not yet ready to go home.
“We bridge the gap for patients who are medically fit but can’t go home because no care package is in place,” said Ms Brady. “We can take them home while that care package is sourced, which obviously frees up a bed a lot quicker.
“Our staff will deliver care in the patient’s own home for up to 14 days until the care package is put in place. And we will mirror what the package of community care is expected to be.”
Healthcare assistant Lisa Cunningham prepared Caird to leave after his month-long hospital stay. Sitting on his bed, fully dressed and waiting to go, Caird smiled when Ms Cunningham stopped and said hello. He spoke about his time in the education department at the RAF, explaining how poor eyesight stopped him from becoming a pilot.
Caird praised the staff and the care he’d received during his stay at NUH but said he was looking forward to getting home and watching TV. “Without Hospital at Home, Caird would be still on an acute ward, waiting for a package of care,” said Ms Cunningham. “While further down the line, someone else is waiting for a bed to be freed-up so they can be admitted.
“He’s been in for 32 days and, as much as he wants to go home, he will be feeling quite anxious about it. And so having a familiar face is really important, it really helps ease that anxiety.”
At Berman 2 Caird made his way out with Ms Cunningham. He was wheeled down the corridor lined with staff waving goodbye and wishing him well. Grinning, he told Ms Cunningham: “I feel like a celebrity.”
The news comes weeks after NUH bosses apologised after a separate veteran, 95-year-old Stanley Solomons, was forced to wait 26 hours in a Queen’s Medical Centre corridor for a hospital bed. His daughter, Labour councillor Rachael Ellis at Gedling Borough Council, was by his side while in hospital and said he was “frail”. She praised hard-working staff, saying she saw them “literally running” around A&E.
Councillor Ellis spoke highly of the plan to ease pressure on hospital beds. “I do appreciate these initiatives,” she said. “I think Hospital at Home is a great idea, and, if it is safe, the more healthcare that can be provided in someone’s own home or community has to be the way to go - it’s very person-centred.
"And it will help free up hospital beds. If this had been in place a few weeks ago, and had there been beds available, I have no doubt that my father would not have endured such a long wait."
Mr Solomons – who trained at the top-secret Bletchley Park and ran a listening post in Hong Kong during the Cold War – is now back in his care home, and modest about his military past, saying: “I’ve had a singularly patchy life."
At the end of September, a Nottinghamshire health boss urged people to use NHS services wisely after a critical incident was declared. The alert was expanded to the whole of Nottinghamshire on Thursday, September 29, one day after Nottinghamshire University Hospitals Trust (NUH), which runs QMC and City Hospital, declared a critical incident, cancelling some non-urgent appointments.
A critical incident is declared when the level of disruption results in a local NHS organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver critical services. Raising the alert enables trusts to prioritise patients with the highest level of need. NUH had said high emergency attendances and difficulties with discharging patients led to the decision, after waiting numbers in hospitals began to grow as a result. There are also wider concerns about winter pressures on the health service due to the prospect of what's been described as a 'twindemic' - the combination of flu and Covid-19.
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