‘Home for lunch’ campaign launches to support early discharges when patients are ready to leave hospital
Health and care services across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are joining forces to launch a new campaign this week to support patients to get ‘Home for lunch’ on the day they are ready to leave hospital.
Keeping patients in hospital beds when they no longer require hospital care has a negative impact on their mental and physical wellbeing, particularly for older patients.
For patients over the age of 80, a week in bed can lead to 10 years of muscle ageing. Furthermore, prolonged bed rest is thought to reduce the ability to walk independently for between 16 to 65% of older people. There is also a greater risk of contracting viruses and infections, the longer the hospital stay.
Chief Medical Officer at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals, Dr Merry Kane said: “Getting patients home earlier in the day will not only help to reduce their risk of harm, it will also help to free up capacity across the whole system. Wards will have space to receive patients in the afternoon, so more beds are available. Ambulances can offload patients sooner, so paramedics can then get back out into the community, rather than wait outside hospitals. All this means our staff can give the vital care to those that need it.
Babs Rounsevell MBE, Managing Director at CHAOS Group, said: “This winter is likely to be challenging for our hospitals. That’s why we are working together with health and care partners to support patients to be ‘Home for lunch’ on their day of discharge. We hope we can support local people and families after a stay in hospital which in turn will help reduce waiting times to be seen in the emergency department and ambulance waiting times. We also need local people to help us too; if you’ve a loved one in hospital, please help get them back home as quickly as possible.”
Dual Chief Nursing Officer for Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, Kim O’Keeffe said: “We will be doing all we can to get our patients home in the morning, in daylight hours, which is important for many of our frail and elderly patients with cognitive impairment. It also enables timely community assessments in the afternoon to take place to ensure they receive the right support and ongoing care in their own homes.”
“Being in familiar surroundings with support from loved ones is one of the best things for mental wellbeing. Hospitals are unfamiliar and can be very confusing. Being in hospital for too long can reduce muscle capacity and reduce the ability to do routine things for yourself.”
Our campaign aims to raise awareness with local people and enlist their support in getting people who are ready to leave hospital back home as soon as possible. For those with loved ones or friends in hospital, there are lots of things people can do to help, including arranging a lift home, putting the heating on, buying some essentials and popping in to see a person who has returned home while they settle back in.
Kim added, “We also want relatives of patients to understand that an early discharge of their loved ones from hospital will not only benefit them, but it will also help our very sick patients who come in via ED and may need a bed urgently.
NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly’s Director of Nursing, Aisling Crombie, said: “It is great to see the passion and commitment everyone across our health and care system is bringing to support our people, who are ready to leave hospital, to be home in time for lunch through this initiative. There are not only benefits for those who are able to recover more comfortably back home but also for our staff who are able to deliver care for those that urgently need to be in a hospital setting.”
The Home for Lunch campaign is part of NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly winter plans, which aims to reduce operational system pressures, including avoidable delays in discharge, overcrowding in our Emergency Department, lengthy ambulance handovers, and longer 999 response times.
Launch of the campaign coincides with a focussed discharge event from 25 to 29 November. Teams across all parts of the health and care system will be pulling together to increase the number of daily discharges of patients from the Royal Cornwall Hospital who are medically fit by at least 20 above the usual number each weekday.
The ‘Home for lunch’ campaign will include social media posts, digital screen advertising, radio ads on local community radio stations, including CHBN the Community and Hospitals Broadcasting Network. It forms part of a wider winter ‘Stay well’ communications campaign which will continue over the coming months, as health and care services ask for the support of our local communities to ensure we are all accessing the right services for our needs.
Background information
‘Home for lunch’ is based on similar campaign developed by Herefordshire and Worcestershire NHS which has been shortlisted for a national award in recognition of the contribution it has made to patient care and safety.