Pilot scheme proves successful
A year ago, we started trialling a new shift pattern to meet the increased demand for our service, whilst maintaining the vital 24/7 element of our care. Deputy Director of Nursing Jane Westall is part of the project team managing the trial. She reports on the difference it has made to our service.
“As patient numbers constantly grew, it was becoming increasingly difficult to manage our on-call service; support existing patients and meet the demand for first visits to new patients, who were being referred on a daily basis in some parts of our patch.
“We were having to manage a waiting list in some areas. As nurses, this was a heartbreaking situation for us. We knew we had to look at a new way of working in order to help everyone who needed us.
“Round-the-clock care has always been a central part of our service. Although we couldn't plan for overnight visits, as these were always made on a responsive basis, we found we couldn't plan properly for the following day's visits either: because if we ended up working more than three hours overnight when on-call – we couldn't work the next day.
“Trialling a different night shift, so a nurse and Healthcare Assistant worked in tandem overnight, and introducing an evening shift so we could schedule patient visits until 9pm, meant we could reach more patients as soon as they were referred.
“The trial eliminated the waiting list and enabled us to respond to new patients straight away, as soon as they needed us.
“We're still evaluating all aspects of the pilot - but it's clear we need a dedicated night team to meet the demand for our service. This year, we've already seen patient numbers increase by 13% - if it hadn't been for the pilot scheme, we wouldn't have been able to help them all.
“There is a cost implication: we've had to recruit dedicated night nurses and we need an office base overnight. We also want to roll this out across our combined catchment, which will incur further cost. But what we'll be able to achieve – more patients having the choice to stay at home – will be so valuable.”
- The cost of funding our dedicated overnight team across our combined area works out at £2,000 per week.
15th November 2011
