A new overnight care-at-home service is to be trialled in Inverness to ease pressure on hospital beds.
NHS Highland announced yesterday that it was launching the year-long pilot project in partnership with care provider group Scottish Care.
It will involve staff at three independent providers – Gateway, Castle Care and Eildon – helping support patients in the Highland capital in their homes at night.
The initiative, which is expected to be rolled out across the region in the future, aims to reduce the length of hospital stays in the region and enable patients to receive more care at home.
Announcing the pilot, NHS Highland’s special projects lead Jean-Pierre Sieczkarek said: “The overnight service is a response to the need for support during the night to allow safe discharge from hospital where required, to respond to social care interventions such as falls and help calls and support people to be safely supported in their own home.
“We are hopeful that this type of intervention will take pressure off our hospitals by reducing the number of admissions and speeding up discharge for patients.
“We are confident that this initiative can prevent people from being placed in residential care, when support overnight could allow them the choice of returning home.”
Rhoda Grant, Highlands and Islands Labour MSP, said: “It’s a good initiative. Anything that keeps people at home, or allows them to get home more quickly, is to be welcomed.
“I often speak to GPs who say they have no alternative but to send vulnerable people to hospital because there is no alternative at night when they should not be left alone either due to illness or a fall.”
