Assisted Discharge from Hospital Service

This service provides support for patients leaving hospital via two service strands.

The first involves providing 'Assisted Discharge from Hospital'. Here, a staff member would support the patient to leave the hospital with transportation granted by the provider; this would also include the patient being settled in their home (note: this can also include transport from intermediate care). The latter support can be for a period of up to 4 hrs. This service is particularly helpful for patients with a physical disability/frailty who do not available support from a family member/friend. This will be provided at Macclesfield Hospital (weekdays only due to insufficient current demand at the weekend) and at Leighton Hospital (weekends only due to direct funding from MCHT being provided during the week and a history of referrals).

Patients requiring additional assistance can then be helped for a further 2 week period through the 'Support at Home' element of the contract. This includes visits/phone calls and the delivery of practical tasks such as wellbeing checks, redeeming a prescription for the user, help in getting food, conveyance to any medical appointments where the user is unable to travel themselves. Signposting also takes place to other services where appropriate. This includes People Helping People, Occupational Therapy etc. The Support at Home capacity can be flexed to provide additional support for hospitals (including at the weekends) subject to demand.

The aim of the service is to support the early discharge of patients from hospital and to ensure the patient is not readmitted. This reduces pressure both on hospital services as well as Adult Social Care. It is of note that pressures have been particularly high on Acute Services over the last 24 months.