New service makes it easier to find care home place for a loved one

A NEW service is helping patients be discharged faster from hospital into a care home or respite care.

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is commissioning the service to help people through the difficult process of getting loved ones into a home which needs.

Families are advised by trained staff and taken to see the suggested homes as they make a decision, with a transfer happening in an average of three days.

Michelle Veitch, deputy chief is best suited to their operating officer, said: “We understand the decision to place a loved one in a residential or nursing home is not an easy one.

“But, for many families, there comes a time when people who have cared for a husband or wife or a parent can’t manage any more.

“Over the years, we have seen many families struggle through the process and we wanted to introduce a new way of working that would relieve some of that burden.”

Kelyvn Casson used the service to find respite care for his 92-year-old mother, who broke and fell her hip at home in East Yorkshire.

Mr Casson, who lives 120 miles away in Northamptonshire, said: “This is a wonderful service and helped me so much making these tough decisions.”

Since the end of January there have been 32 referrals to the service for patients in the East Riding and it is being extended to those with Hull GPs from this week. It comes as trusts across the country attempt to solve the NHS’s bed-blocking crisis.

In 2016 2.2 million hospital “bed days” in England were lost due to delayed transfers of care.