The Community Nursing team is made up of senior district nurses, who lead a team of community nurses and healthcare assistants. The team provides community healthcare services for house bound patients who may be acutely unwell, have a long-term condition, need palliative care or require intensive and technological care.
As well as treatment, nurses can offer advice and support with health concerns, working together with GPs to prevent unnecessary or avoidable hospital admissions.
The team visit house bound and bed bound patients to provide advice and care for example: palliative care, wound management, medication support, catheter and continence care, and assess patients needs for specialised medical equipment such as beds and mattresses.
If the patient can leave their home (either escorted or unescorted) and travel on foot, wheelchair, by public transport or dial a ride, they will be asked to attend the nearest clinic instead.
Patients who can attend GP, dental or hospital appointments are not considered housebound.
The community nurse team work in partnership with hospices, primary, community and secondary care health services, and the voluntary sector.
The service provide a 24 hour service, 7 days a week. However, it is not an emergency service.
If patients need urgent help, they should contact their GP or call 111.
In an emergency, they should call 999 for an ambulance.
Referrals
All referrals to the district nursing teams should be made using the HCH referral form through the Single Point of Access service (SPA).
For a new patient, please liaise with your GP who will make a referral to our service via the Single Point of Access.
For a patient previously on our caseload, you can contact the service and ask for a nurse. If there is a clinical need, the nurse can accept you back to the service via a self-referral.
Telephone: 0300 077 0342