The Healthy Homes Bill – why is it important?

 The Town and Country Planning Association launched the Healthy Homes Bill in September 2020, and is calling upon the UK government to adopt the bill as legislation. The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) is pleased to support the Healthy Homes Act campaign and the eleven key principles on which it is founded.

Read RCOT news piece here

How to help your mental health by creating a home that’s a safe haven

HOME is where the heart is – but could it also be crucial to mental health? Read newspaper piece here

In and out of hospital

This report from the British Red Cross proposes introducing automatic home assessments and other simple interventions for elderly and vulnerable people who are often admitted to hospital to reduce avoidable hospital admissions in vulnerable patients. The report contains analysis of first-hand accounts of frontline health and care workers who argue that there are too many missed opportunities to prevent many of these avoidable admissions.

Making sense of accountable care

Briefing from the King's Fund - making sense of accountable care:

Constraints on NHS funding over the past seven years, combined with rising demand from a growing and ageing population, have put the NHS under enormous pressure. It has been clear for some time that simply working our current hospital-based model of care harder to meet rising demand is not the answer. Rather, the NHS needs to work differently by providing more care in people’s homes and the community and breaking down barriers between services.

Also see the King's Fund briefing: acccountable care explained

Study shows home-based service for acute lung patients frees NHS beds

An acute ‘hospital-at-home’ scheme for patients with lung disease could save the NHS millions if replicated nationally. A study of the multidisciplinary service, which includes physiotherapists, found that it had reduced hospital stays from an average of 9.1 days to 2.5 days, saving £1,400 per case and has proven to be as effective as purely hospital-based treatment when measured by the number of re-admissions.

OC28 Home Parenteral Nutrition (HPN) In Palliative Oncology Patients: A UK Single Centre Case Series

Abstracts / Clinical Nutrition ESPEN 22 (2017) 116e147

Malnourishment is common in cancer patients. Resultant sarcopenia, seen alongside advanced disease, leads to increased rates of perioperative complications, increased rates of infection and decreased tolerance of anti-cancer treatment. A subset of these patients are unable to maintain enteral
nutrition, for instance those with bowel obstruction, and improving nutrition in this group is an area of expanding interest. Since the establishment of home parenteral nutrition (HPN), its use in cancer patients in the UK has increased annually (British Artificial Nutrition Survey 2015). Despite this, literature in this area remains sparse and randomised controlled trials are understandably non-existent. This paper aims to review current practice with HPN in patients with non-curable cancer at a
large teaching hospital in the UK to assess outcomes and suggest areas for future research.

UHCW Research: H. Bridgestock, C. Bell, R. Whitefield, S. Sothi, N. Burch.

Terminally ill children should have access to around-the-clock homecare, says NICE

NICE has published a draft standard aiming to improve end of life care for children in England.

It says families who are caring for terminally ill children at home should have 24-hour access to specialist medical support and advice.

New study to look at improving rehabilitation of older people following discharge from hospital

Researchers funded by the NIHR are conducting a five year national study looking at how rehabilitation can be improved for older people with frailty following discharge from hospital after an acute illness or injury.

The study, known as HERO (Home-based Extended Rehabilitation of Older people), Led by Dr Andrew Clegg (the Academic Unit of Elderly Care and Rehabilitation (AUECR), University of Leeds based at Bradford Teaching Hospitals), will involve 718 older people with frailty admitted to hospital following acute illness or injury. Participants will be recruited across 10 hospitals within Yorkshire and the South West of England over 23 months in total, with recruitment staggered to accommodate an internal pilot. The overall aim is to investigate whether an extended rehabilitation programme using a home-based exercise intervention developed for older people with frailty improves health-related quality of life.

Physio wins digital pioneer award for use of modems to help patients at home

A physiotherapist who uses technology to help monitor patients who receive non-invasive ventilation (NIV) at home has received an award for being a digital pioneer.

Audit of an inpatient home oxygen referral system

European Respiratory Journal 2016 48: PA1397; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.congress-2016.PA1397

The home oxygen assessment and review (HOS-AR) team at UHCW offer an inpatient referral service for patients considered to require oxygen prior to discharge from hospital. It is widely recognised that non-specialist assessment for home oxygen results in inappropriate prescription of oxygen and ultimately increased costs. By centralising all oxygen ordering across the hospital we aimed to improve the ordering of discharge oxygen

UHCW Research:  Vida Kidger, Catherine Gilsenan, Rhea Fielding and Joanna Shakespeare

Listening to people with dementia and their carers

The Department of Health’s listening programme will include different ways of gathering people’s views and experiences, both in person and online.

The first part of this work is an online survey for people who have been diagnosed with dementia in the past 2 years (since November 2014), and people who provide unpaid care for them. The survey, which is open until 31 January 2017, asks about people’s experiences of dementia diagnosis, support and awareness. It has been produced in consultation with people with dementia, their carers and our partner organisations.

Home-based cardiac rehabilitation may be a convenient alternative to centre-based rehabilitation

Home-based cardiac rehabilitation for people with heart failure is safe and effective. It improved exercise capacity slightly compared to care without cardiac rehabilitation, and may also be more convenient than centre-based rehabilitation as more people completed treatment.

From the NIHR Dissemination Centre

The Hospital At Home Model: Bringing Hospital-Level Care To The Patient

The Commonwealth Fund -
This case study is one in an ongoing series examining programmes that aim to improve outcomes and reduce the cost of care for patients with complex needs, who account for a large share of U.S. health care spending. This case study looks at an initiative that offers patients the option of receiving hospital-level care at home rather than in-hospital.

Is there any evidence for advocating home birth for twin pregnancies?

Answer to the question, Is there any evidence for advocating home birth for twin pregnancies?, posted to the RCOG Query Bank.

New model of care for frail older people

Sutton Homes of Care's vanguard site will develop a care home provider network to support training across local care homes, and a new model of health and social care locally, which will include telehealth and expanded in-reach services, providing the right care at the right time where patients need it.

This means a patient who has three in-patient hospital stays in a month will now get the care they need from hospital specialists at home, enabling them to stay close to their family and friends.