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14
WQ.166/2019
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY J.H. PERCHARD OF ST. SAVIOUR
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 26th MARCH 2019
Question
Will the Minister advise –
- how many rapid response requests were made outside of usual operating hours in the last 6 months; and
- how much it would cost the Department to extend the current rapid response service to a 24-hour service and what extra resources (staff or otherwise) would be needed to achieve this?
Answer
a) Family Nursing and Homecare (FNHC) is commissioned to provide Rapid Response and Reablement services from 7.30am to 8.30pm every day. It is not possible to accept any new referrals or assessment after 6pm. The hours of operation are akin to such services provided in the NHS. Referrals to the services – which are intended to help avoid admission to hospital or to facilitate discharge from hospital
– can only be made by clinicians and it is unlikely that they would make any requests outside these hours. For example, they would not be wanting to send someone home late in the evening or early in the morning. FNHC, in partnership with Health and Community Services and key partners, has delivered Rapid Response and Reablement services to 503 individuals in the period 1 July – 31 December 2018.
b) It would not be appropriate to extend the current intermediate care service to cover a 24-hour period. This would effectively amount to an out of hours service' and would require a different model of provision involving, for example, general nursing care services. It would not be as simple as replicating what currently happens during the day to overnight as the needs would be different. Any such model would require additional resources, especially skilled health professionals, and would require a whole systems approach to developing that model of care, linking with primary care, residential units, hospice, and other care providers. It would have to be developed to understand fully the resource implications.