Service to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions launches in Odiham, North Hampshire

A new service provided by a leading local care provider and a Hampshire-based clinical commissionig group is aiming to tackle the issue of overcrowded hospitals and create new jobs at the same time.

A new service provided by a leading local care provider and a Hampshire-based clinical commissioning group is aiming to tackle the issue of overcrowded hospitals and create new jobs at the same time.

Bluebird Care and the NHS North Hampshire CCG have launched a new JET Service to solve the problem at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.

The hospital is experiencing major issues with overcrowding which is exacerbated by unnecessary admissions of elderly and vulnerable people with illnesses brought about by the cold weather and who don’t have a support network to allow them to stay at home.

The Bluebird Care JET Service has been designed to help keep these types of people out of hospital in the first instance by putting emergency care in place in the community where patients would otherwise be admitted to hospital.

Bluebird Care and local health care professionals such as GP’s and District Nurses have joined together to deliver the same level of care in a patient’s own home.  Treating people at home is also known to speed up their recovery and helps them to have a faster return to independent living than if they're admitted to hospital.

The initiative was launched this week in the rural area to the south and east of Basingstoke and Alton, covering the GP surgeries of:

·         Beggarwood Surgery
·         Hook and Hartley Wintney Practice
·         Odiham Health Centre
·         Boundaries Surgery, Four Marks
·         Wilson Practice, Alton
·         Chawton Park Surgery
·         Bentley Surgery
 
Phil Miles, Managing Director of Bluebird Care Hook & Kingsclere, said

“We’re thrilled to be one of the first in the country to do this and anticipate that our new Bluebird Care JET Service will be a huge success for the people of North Hampshire.

Not only will we provide instant care to elderly and vulnerable people in our local area, but we will provide the massive benefit of helping to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions to Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital when they are already at maximum capacity.

The Bluebird Care JET Service will reduce admissions for Basingstoke Hospital which will mean there are more free beds and staff on hand to help those that really need it, leaving us as the home care experts to look after those with less serious issues in their own home.

We believe our expertise and award winning home and live-in care services make us the perfect partner to work alongside the NHS and we look forward to this new partnership.

At the same time, by offering great new opportunities for progression to our current staff, we are attracting new people to the industry to fill the vacancies in our home care teams by offering attractive salaried contracts and a chance for development and exciting future career options.”

Director at Mid-Hampshire Healthcare, Philip Heiden said: “We are delighted to be working with Bluebird Care who will be providing vital assistance to our NHS hospitals and GP surgeries.

It has long been known that with correct community social care support, thousands of people that are unnecessarily admitted to hospital can be cared for just as well, if not better, in their own homes and Bluebird Care were the perfect partner to deliver this.”