Health Minister impressed by new Crosshouse service

HEALTH secretary Nicola Sturgeon visited Crosshouse Hospital to meet patients who are benefiting from a new style of treatment for long-term ailments.

The Deputy First Minister was there to find out about SPARRA – NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s Long Term Conditions Collaborative.

She was particularly interested in how their local authority partners are improving care for patients with long-term conditions who are at risk of readmission and admission.

The government uses the SPARRA system (Scottish Patients At Risk of Readmission and Admission) for collecting statistics about these patients.

GPs, hospital-based staff and local authorities’ social services have been using the SPARRA information to help improve support and care for people with complex health and social care needs.

The programme manager of the long term collaborative, Kathleen Mcguire, explained: “Over the next 25 years the proportion of the population aged over 80 years will increase to one in 12, and one in four will be over the age of 65. In general, the older a person becomes the more likely they are to suffer ill health and develop long-term conditions such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

“We have been using the statistics from SPARRA to help us anticipate the care and support these patients need, so that when they do have periods of ill health, we can respond in an integrated, coordinated way.”

Kathleen described how district nursing and social work teams have been working together to create individual care plans for SPARRA patients. Patients’ electronic notes also alert out-of-hour services, such as NHS Ayrshire Doctors on Call, allowing services to look at opportunities for care at home for patients of SPARRA status.

In practice, this means that if SPARRA patients with long-term conditions need to go into hospital, Acute Medical Receiving and Accident and Emergency are alerted and the SPARRA facilitator can begin to consider alternatives to admissions and can discuss with district nursing staff about early discharge.

Dr Janet McCarlie, Kilwinning GP and clinical lead for the Long Terms Conditions Collaborative, added: “Having a single point for coordinating care and support for these patients improves their experience and that of their carers, enables them to be cared for at home and may prevent avoidable hospital admissions.”

During her visit the Cabinet Secretary also spent time observing the process in action in Accident and Emergency, before meeting staff involved in the discharge process in the Medical Receiving Ward. She also chatted with Mrs Ruby Legg, Kilwinning, and Mrs Anne Fleming, Catrine, about how their personal experiences of home and hospital care have been improved since SPARRA was introduced.

So far, SPARRA has meant that this group of patients have received less care in hospital and more care at home by dedicated community teams. As well as reducing the number of admissions for this group of patients by 40% (down from 2924 to 1759), patients who did have to be admitted spent less time in hospital.

Nicola Sturgeon said: “People with long term conditions have particular health needs and it’s important that these are well managed to prevent frequent repeat hospital admissions.

“By working together, health professionals in NHS Ayrshire & Arran are ensuring that patients with conditions that place them at risk of hospital readmission are cared appropriately and remain in their own homes where possible.”