NHS Where Best Next Campaign

Working together – this campaign, to reduce the number of long-stay hospital patients by 40 per cent, has been launched by four Cheshire based Clinical Commissioning Groups, including the South Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

wherebestnext?

This programme will ensure patients get the care they need in a location best suited to them, improve working environments for staff and reduce crowding in A&E.

Evidence has shown that it is much better for patients' physical and mental wellbeing to leave hospital as soon as they are medically optimised for discharge. Nearly 350,000 patients spend three or more weeks in acute hospitals each year.

The campaign encourages health workers and patients alike to think 'why not home?' and 'why not today?' This mindset is especially good for frail and older patients.

There is a huge impact of longer-than-necessary stays on patients. 35 per cent of 70-year-old patients experience decline in their physical and mental abilities while in hospital. This increases to 65 per cent for people over 90 years of age while 48 per cent of patients over the age of 85 die within one year of hospital admission, sometimes due to exposure to infections during their time in hospital.

The campaign is based on five key principles, all of which have been developed with partners to ensure that patients are discharged in a safe, appropriate and timely manner.

The principles are;

• 1.Plan for discharge from the start
• 2.Involve patients and their families in discharge decisions
• 3.Establish systems and process for frail people
• 4.Embed multidisciplinary team reviews
• 5.Encourage a supported home-first approach

These principles all relate to different parts of a patient's stay.

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