Call for intermediate care to prevent hospitalisation

The findings of the second National Audit of Intermediate Care were published earlier this month, and highlighted that there is wide variation in the delivery of these important services across the country. The results of the audit have seen official bodies call for the services to be directed more at preventing hospitalisation and re-hospitalisation, with preventative measures to be taken in the home environment.

Intermediate care services are an essential part of ensuring that those with illnesses or disabilities are able to remain independent and can include support from nurses, care assistants and occupational therapists, who specialize in adapting homes with aids such as new home stairlifts so that people can live independently.

The recent audit of these services has shown that they are not currently operating at their most effective level, with demand for this support resulting in more resources being spent on those who are leaving hospital, rather than on preventing hospital admissions from reoccurring. Investment and services have reportedly barely increased since the 2012 audit, which predicted that these two measures would both need to double in quality in 2013 to cope with potential demand. However, only two Clinical Commissioning Groups in the country proved to be an exception to this.

Intermediate care services are important for helping people to stay independent in their homes by avoiding preventable hospitalisation and allowing individuals to spend as much time as possible in their homes in comfort. There are plenty of resources and products that can help people coming out of hospital receive this help, from regular care assistant visits to installing bathing aids such as walk in showers with seats and walk in baths for the elderly so that they can wash independently. Using these resources and products in a preventative way could help more people stay out of hospital, which is exactly what the results of the audit call for.

Image Credit: Melpomene (Shutterstock)