New phone service offers appropriate care

PATIENTS in Hinckley and Bosworth are among those who are benefiting from a new signpost service.

The clinical navigation hub has been trialled over the last few months across the county and has already shown to be radically changing patients’ interactions with the NHS, making sure they get appropriate care as soon as possible.

In the first six months of the year it has saved over 1800 users a trip to A&E.

The service is accessed through NHS 111 and involves callers speaking directly with an emergency care practitioner, nurse or doctor, who then pro- vide professional medical advice, which ranges from recommendations of selfcare, to calling an ambulance on the patient’s behalf.

The hub is fully integrated into the NHS 111 service in the area, providing residents more direct access to clinical advice, whenever required.

Once callers are transferred to the clinical navigation hub they can speak to a health professional, who in turn has access to a wide range of specialists.

Data collected over the last six months shows that patients who are referred to the clinical navigation hub are consistently being sent to the right place.

Of the 2,600 users who would have otherwise gone to A&E, around 45% were advised to visit either an urgent care centre or primary care services, and another 20% were advised to administer self-care.

In cases where immediate transport to the emergency department is not needed but an ambulance would have normally been dispatched, there was similar success, with more than 81% treated appropriately, without the need for an ambulance.

The measure has been implemented by West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group.