Urgent Community Response in Reading
Download (PDF 660.69 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Reading was commissioned by Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BHFT) to capture experience of people referred to its Berkshire West Urgent Community Response (UCR) service. UCR aims to prevent unplanned hospital admissions by sending a team to people’s usual place of residence within 2 hours of a referral for a crisis such as a fall, injury, or deterioration in health or within 2 days as part of a ‘reablement’ response. BHFT sought patient experience to find out what was working well and any areas for improvement. This report covers findings from 20 interviews of Reading people.
People/relatives said:
- Response times varied - from 1¾ hours, to within a week to “really quick”
- Some delays appeared to relate to other services such as emergency ambulance
- They didn’t know what to specifically expect from UCR, mainly just ‘help’
- They believed the service was called, variously, ‘rapid response’, ‘urgent response’, ‘community response’, ‘two-hour response’, ‘older services’ or ‘intermediate care’
- The care they received was very good and UCR staff were kind and caring
- The interventions included explanations, equipment, exercises, and checks
- They sometimes weren’t sure which service various professionals were from
- In some cases, they couldn’t remember the visit or care
- They sometimes didn’t know what was going to happen next when UCR ended and how to get information on adult social care
- In some cases, relatives living with them couldn’t help because of their own needs
- In some cases, carers/relatives told us they felt tired or confused in trying to support an elderly parent and liaising with multiple professionals.
The report contains four recommendations about raising awareness of the service, reviewing communications methods and access for service users, reviewing the hospital discharge process and sharing the positive feedback with staff providing the service.
The report contains a response from the provider undertaking to act on the recommendations.