Why might a patient choose home care over NHS aftercare?
Home care offers the same kinds of care as many NHS providers, however, because of the way services have been developed there is often more choice and flexibility of appointment times, depending of course on your treatment and condition. This enables the potential for up to four visits a day from a member of the highly skilled clinical home care team.
Is having your medical needs catered for at home as safe as a hospital/GP’s Surgery?
You will be looked after as safely as you would be in hospital or GP surgery. Before you receive care at home an assessment will be undertaken to make sure home care is right for you. Whilst being cared for at home, there will be constant communication with your consultant or GP. Care at home has various benefits as recovery can be quicker and you are less likely to get a hospital acquired infection. You will have your treatment as you would in hospital but have all your home comforts around you, including family and friends. Your care plan will be written with you and care can be provided in any setting if it is safe to do so. If a problem arises there will be direct access back to hospital or the GP to receive the care you need.
What different services can home care provide?
Nursing, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy can be provided at home. These support a range of care needs, for example, you may have been recently discharged from hospital and finding it hard to adjust to being at home again. Home care can help you with rehabilitation. You may benefit from having some physiotherapy after your operation to help with mobility that one of the physiotherapists can help with. Nurses can help you with medication administration, care of wounds, removal of stiches, IV antibiotics or help with personal care until you feel more confident. A health care plan can be developed that suits your needs and provide expert advice and support to enable your independence in your own home, making your recovery faster and free from complications.
Is home care more accessible when it comes to an out-of-hours service?
Your own home can be visited at any time between 07:00 and 22:00 hours, seven days a week. Outside of these hours an on-call service is provided for our patients, whereby advice and support can be provided over the telephone through our out of hours service. Registered practitioners run the out of hour’s service.
Up until this point I’ve been consulting with my GP—what will happen to my records if I choose private home care?
All record keeping systems and processes are governed by the same regulatory legislation (information governance) as GPs and hospital systems. Your consent will be asked for in order to share medical records with your GP or other medical teams directly involved in your care.
How is a treatment plan agreed upon?
Following your referral you will discuss your ongoing care and treatment needs and agree a plan of care and create a treatment strategy with you and your GP or Consultant. The treatment plan will explain how many visits you will have, and what care and treatment will be provided. If your condition changes we will review your care plan to meet your needs.
What quality of care procedures are there in place?
HomeLink Healthcare is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC monitors, inspects and regulates services to ensure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. The CQC sets out what good and outstanding care looks like and ensures that services meet the fundamental standards below which care must never fall. A condition of registration is that national care quality standards are adhered to.
Clinical staff are all directly employed by HomeLink Healthcare and are subject to rigorous employment and competency assessments. All clinical staff have a minimum of three years post qualification experience, which includes working in the home care setting. The content of care is constantly delivered, and feedback is welcome on all services, ensuring the experience of care is good, and helps to continually improve the quality of care delivered.
HomeLink Healthcare provides medical care in your own home. Follow the link to find out how you could benefit.
See also: Receiving Hospital Care At Home
