A couple of months ago, a person we support was admitted to hospital after becoming unwell at home. A few days later, they were deemed medically fit for discharge, but needed a large increase to their care – in fact, they needed fourteen times the amount of care that they had before going into hospital!

Our team worked really closely with each other to get the care in place for the first few days, to give Joseph and Dawn time to co-ordinate it going forward. And, after just 45 minutes, everything was ready to go, and the person was able to return home.

Our Office Manager, Joseph, who co-ordinates our rotas alongside Dawn, said: ‘The hospital at the time was on OPEL 4, which means that they were under an incredibly high amount of pressure. Normally, we ask for 24 hours’ notice of discharge when a person needs more support after discharge, so that it gives us time to move things around and get things in place. But in order to get this person home – which is where they prefer to be – and to help our colleagues at the hospital, we eschewed that and managed to get care in place just after they’d returned home.

Our care co-ordinators

‘The NHS and social care are sisters, and one cannot operate without the other. By getting this person home as soon as possible, not only did they feel better for being back where they want to be, but the hospital was able to start treating other people sooner’.