Enter and view: Rapid Response Service

Healthwatch Waltham Forest conducted an Enter and View visit to the Rapid Response service, a nurse-led service that aims to prevent patient admission to hospital by delivering unplanned care within the patient's home. The visit was carried out after Healthwatch Waltham Forest was commissioned to deliver an Urgent Care Patient Engagement project, reviewing service users' experiences of Urgent and Emergency Care Services in Waltham Forest. Feedback was gathered from patients and staff through surveys and interviews.

Key findings included:

• Patients had a very positive experience of the Rapid Response Service. The service delivered a caring and compassionate service to patients and used a person centred approach.
• The service offered a high quality and comprehensive service in treating people with conditions in need of immediate care at home. The service was shown to be a key factor in helping to reduce hospital admissions.
• Staff were conversant of the complaints procedure for patients and worked closely with the Patient’s Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) in order to meet patients' needs.
• The service had a comprehensive staff training system in place; staff received a comprehensive training package that they felt was relevant to their job.
• Staff felt they were a part of a strong team supported by the management and leadership team.

Based on these findings, Healthwatch Waltham Forest made two recommendations:

1. Healthwatch Waltham Forest would like to share with others the good practice shown in the delivery of care for Rapid Response service users.
2. For the Rapid Response service to work together with Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and GP practices in order to: review current systems in place and identify how best to deliver a collaborative service; and raise awareness amongst local GPs to ensure that only appropriate referrals are made to the Rapid Response service.

The report features a positive response from the service provider.