A new 24-hour telephone service offering a single point of access for adult community health services in Birmingham is launched on Monday, 3 October.
The service, designed to help professionals arrange the right care for urgent and non-urgent referrals, aims to prevent avoidable hospital admissions and manage long-term conditions effectively in the community.
Professionals – or patients and carers known to the service – can call 0300 555 1919 at any time of the day or night, seven days a week, to access co-ordinated care delivery including:
Any adult registered with a Birmingham GP can be referred, provided they are at high risk of an avoidable hospital admission and in need of urgent assessment; require non-urgent nursing or therapy services in their own home or require management of complex long-term conditions or palliative/end-of-life care in their own home.
The single point of access is supported by a comprehensive model of community care which proactively supports patients in the community as the preferred action. The multidisciplinary teams include senior nurses with advanced clinical assessment, diagnostic and prescribing skills; care staff; physiotherapy and occupational therapy support; social workers; registered mental health nurses.
Pat Hackett, adults and community divisional director for BCHC, said: “This is an exciting step forward for community healthcare services in Birmingham, streamlining and simplifying access to high quality urgent and non-urgent care and helping to reduce avoidable admissions to the city’s hospitals.
“We look forward to working together with health, social and nursing care professionals to firmly establish a service that puts the patient’s needs and wishes at the very heart of the decision-making process that determines the type of care provided and the place in which it is delivered.”
Click here for more information about the adult community services single point of access.
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