Hospital Discharge, Risk Assessment & Reablement

As a provider of manual handling risk assessment services and reablement training to local authorities Personal Care Consultants has seen a steady increase in demand for our services since we started in 2002.  

Manual handling risk assessment referrals often include providing assessment visits to those people who are in receipt of a formal package of home care, those people who live in residential care setting and to facilitate patients who are being discharged from hospital. 

The primary benefits of the manual handling risk assessment service to local authorities include extremely efficient response times.  We have a large team of experienced risk assessors whose professions include Occupational Therapy and Nursing.  Our team will respond to the initial request for an assessment within 24 hour of its receipt and strive to arrange an initial assessment visit within 48 hours.  Following an initial detailed and thorough assessment of the client medical history, functional ability and environmental considerations, recommendation will be made to the client and their carers. Following negotiation and agreement, an urgent equipment request will be made to the appropriate jointly funded Community Equipment Service for immediate delivery.  As Personal Care Consultants generally deal with the highest priority and most complex cases, urgent equipment deliveries are made.  A follow up visit is then usually arranged to review the recommended equipment, ensuring it can be used safely and meets the client’s and carer’s needs.  Importantly, time is taken to ensure that any recommended equipment reduces the potential risks of injury to the lowest practicable level in line with current health and safety legislation.

In order to plan for an anticipated increase in hospital admissions this winter, NHS hospital trusts across the nation will be drawing up winter contingency plans in order to cope with the demands they undoubtedly face. In recent years flu epidemics, extreme adverse and inclement weather and a massively increasing dependant population have seen admissions into our acute hospitals during winter time rocket.  So, how can this situation be better dealt with this year?  Surely we must have learnt some lessons from previous years?

One solution may include the increased use of our manual handling risk assessment service to both prevent hospital discharges and to facilitate early discharges. 

Further solutions also must include the better use of intermediate care facilities and services to reduce the high numbers of inappropriate admissions, delayed hospital discharges and facilitating early discharges from hospital.  In most cases, providing clients with a period of reablement to become as independent as possible in their own home, benefits everybody concerned.  Not only does this reduce the pressure on the NHS but in most cases individual clients would prefer to be cared for in their own home and maintain or regain as must independence as possible. So with this in mind let’s get more of our health and social care staff trained in reablement skills and make better use of their experience and expertise.  

If we don’t make changes to the provision of our health and social care this winter, undoubtedly the most vulnerable members of our community will suffer unnecessary and prolonged hospital admissions.  If you take a minute to think about this, where would you or your family rather receive care if it was required?

Visit our Risk Assessment and Health and Social Care training pages for more information on the service we provide. For further information please complete our online enquiry form or telephone 01244 390677.