More funding to allow Fife patients to be cared for at home

Hospital at Home gives older people in Fife, who are acutely unwell, the option to recover at home, rather than having to be admitted to hospital.

Under this service, introduced at the end of last year, consultants go out to visit and assess patients in their own homes and arrange for them to be supported by a multi-disciplinary team including advanced nurse practitioners, nurses and physiotherapists.

Under the Hospital at Home system, a patient will be assessed, normally within a few hours, by a practitioner who will take a history and conduct an initial examination.

Following this, a consultant geriatrician will assess the individual in their own home, and discuss a care and treatment plan with input from the patient and their family.

Now the NHS Fife initiative is to share in a further £2.6 million of Scottish Government funding.

Humza Yousaf, Scottish Health Secretary said: “Hospital at Home provides a safe and cost-effective alternative which focuses on the individual patient’s needs.

"Across Scotland 19 Health and Social Care Partnerships within ten health boards are currently developing a Hospital at Home service. This funding brings the total invested in Hospital at Home to just under £4 million.

“We know older people are increasing in numbers and occupy a large proportion of hospital beds when they become frail. If some of these admissions can be avoided, with improved outcomes for patients, everyone benefits.”

A spokeswoman for Fife Health & Social Care Partnership said: “Hospital at Home in Fife has been successful in securing an allocation of this temporary funding until March 2022, to further develop Hospital at Home in Fife.

“Fife is currently one of only three Health and Social Care partnerships in Scotland that have well established Hospital at Home services.

“Hospital at Home is a Consultant led, short-term, targeted intervention that provides a level of acute hospital care in an individual’s own home that is equivalent to that provided within a hospital.”

She added: “Hospital at Home was established in Fife in 2012 and so far has seen over 15,500 people.”

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