Tackling the challenge of keeping older people where they want to be
house team of experienced nurses at RCH who make detailed assessments, and a lot of work is being undertaken to cut the length of hospital stays and reduce the need for the elderly to be admitted at all.
The Opal facility – older people’s assessment and liaison service – has been going for about a year.
There are now more therapists attached to the emergency department, as well as two frailty specialist nurses who liaise with care homes and undertake in-house education around frailty and ad- mission prevention.
Another introduction is a Frailty Hotline through to Royal Cornwall Hospital for GPs, district nurses, social workers and paramedics out in the community.
“Running a hotline is the harder thing to do, but it is the right thing for patients,” explains Dr Wesson. “GPs can access specialist advice without it being too complex or time consuming.
“We want to keep people where they want to be. If elderly people are brought to the emergency department they are often admitted; it is easier to get somebody in than it is to get them straight home. We want to avoid elderly patients having to go backwards and forwards from place to place. That upsets them, and their relatives, and generally lengthens their hospital stay.”
Mr Underwood says communication is vital and that there’s a lot of work still to be done to give older people what they want and need.
“There are a lot of people doing a lot of good things in Cornwall but we need to link them up,” he says.