NEW CLINICAL NAVIGATION SERVICE AVAILABLE FROM 1st DECEMBER 2010
TELEPHONE NUMBER - 01332 789099
A new Clinical Navigation Service is about to be launched to support clinicians in accessing support for your patients. Through this service you can access:
- Advice
- Assessment
- Admission
You will see that the telephone number for the service is the same as the current Bed Bureau number – Bed Bureau staff will continue to answer your call but you will now be offered the above three options.
- For advice, you can be transferred to a Consultant or Registrar to discuss your patient between the hours of 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday, for the following specialties:
Acute Medicine
Gastro
Renal
Cardiology
Medicine for the Elderly - If you feel your patient’s needs are less acute, you can also be transferred to a member of the Service Navigation team. If the outcome of the discussion is that assessment or admission is required, Bed Bureau staff will have remained on the call and can facilitate that. The advice facility is designed to support you but it will remain your decision as to whether or not your patient should be admitted.
- For assessment, your patient can be booked into an Assessment Unit in the usual way and the Bed Bureau team will make the necessary arrangements.
- For admission, the arrangements will be made in the usual way.
The admissions service is available 24/7. Advice will be available from doctors between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday, and from the Service Navigation Team between 8am and 10pm 7 days per week.
If your patient is in need of social care support, you should continue to use the existing telephone numbers to make arrangements (01332 717777 in-hours, 01332 711250 out-of-hours). Similarly if it is clear that your patient is in need of Intermediate Care you can continue to the use existing 01332 888100 number.
What are the benefits?
- Increased ability to offer alternative care where acute care is not required.
- Both acute and non-acute healthcare can be facilitated through this team.
- Patients will be navigated to the best place of care for them.
- Opportunity to reduce non-elective admissions.
- Impact on the emergency admission element of QES.
- The model has been created with input from Dr Martin Rowan-Robinson (GP), Dr Ben Pearson (MAU Consultant) and Dr Jane Youde (DME Consultant).
- Calls taken will be monitored and your practice activity reported to you on request.
What will be different?
- You will now be able to discuss your patient with a Consultant or Registrar.
- You will have improved access to community health services through this number.
- You will be asked for more information about your patient on the call which will potentially reduce testing and questioning of the patient and assist with arrangements on discharge.
What you can do
- Be prepared to answer the questions asked by the Bed Bureau staff or by the medics.
- If you are arranging assessment for your patient, ensure they are clear they are attending for assessment only. The hospital teams often find that when a patient has been told they are coming to hospital, the patient assumes they are staying for a while and this can cause difficulties with families and carers when it comes to discharge.
- If your patient is coming to hospital for assessment or admission, ensure the following key information is provided:
Allergies and drug sensitivities
Drug history during past 6-months
Existing conditions
For practices using TPP, no action is necessary as the hospital team can interrogate TPP for this information.
For all other practices, please include this information in your referral letter to accompany the patient.
Why are we doing this?
Patients sometimes come to hospital because access to, or availability of, alternative non-acute services has been difficult. The extent of this was established through an audit which indicated that 32% of A&E patients should not have been there. The PCT has established a Service Navigation Team in the hospital who redirect patients out to those services where appropriate. In parallel with this the capacity of community services has been increased. We are now therefore better placed to reduce those admissions that come about purely as a result of no real alternative.
Supporting Documents
We hope you will find this service of real benefit to you, and would welcome your feedback.
Gill Collinson - Director of Engagement & Executive Nurse
Ian Matthews - Medical Director