Spotlight on intermediate care, Newcastle

One of Healthwatch Newcastle’s research priority areas for 2016―17. Intermediate care services can either be home based (where care is provided in a person’s own home by health and/or social care professionals) or residential (where care is provided in a care home or community hospital, again by health and/or social care professionals). These services offer people with increasingly complex care needs an alternative care response to lengthy and costly hospital admissions.

Newcastle health and social care partners (Newcastle City Council, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Newcastle Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group and Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust) currently in the process of reviewing intermediate care. The aim: to develop an intermediate care model that better reflects the needs of the local population and ensures a rapid service user assessment and appropriate care.

10 people interviewed in receipt of home based care and 19 people of residential care (10 from Connie Lewcock and 9 from Eden Court). Survey was a semi structured interview designed to find out the specific service user’s experience of services and lasted between 15—45 minutes.

All participants were over 70 years of age, except two aged between 60 and 70. 19 participants were female and 10 male. All participants, except one, were white British and the majority were what would usually be termed ‘middle class’ (over 80%). The survey data may not be a true reflection of the views of all people in receipt of intermediate care services in Newcastle but it does represent the views of those 29 people who completed the survey.

Recommendations:

• Encourage service providers and the Intermediate Care Steering Group, to consider this report and incorporate the recommendations into the current service review and any ongoing service developments.

• Primary and Secondary care services to ensure patients and/or their families are involved in the decision to refer to intermediate care services.

• Intermediate care services to be more widely publicised.

• Information available to patients and their families prior to them receiving the service both verbally and in written format.

• Service providers to be mindful of issues especially at transitional points to access and move on from intermediate care services.

• Carers need to provide better information about follow on services and manage expectations about the home care service.