What are we talking to people about?
Nationally, there is a requirement for each area to deliver an Urgent Community Response service. This requires us to work collectively across a range of health and care teams to identify and be able to respond to someone's needs within a specific timeframe. The support provided is designed to help care for someone in their own home and provide a response that helps prevent them from needing to be admitted to hospital – if that is the right things for their needs.
In County Durham, we already have a significant amount of joined up working between our health and care staff in hospitals, those that work with people where they live as well as with charities and other organisations such as Care Homes. The implementation of the national requirements will build on these joined-up ways of working between teams of staff and provider organisations across the County.
Listening to people's views
By listening to patient experiences of this support over time, we will be able to refine our ways of working and deliver greater consistency for patients across the county.
As a key part of the success of this work, we are also engaging with the staff working in services out in the local community. The opportunity to reach out to staff has been supported by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) to ensure that we are able to hear from relevant members of their teams.
Conversations with patients are also being directly supported by colleagues within CDDFT. After receiving support from the staff involved with our Urgent Community Response people will be followed-up directly. This will provide them with information about how to share their views and experiences in relation to the help and support that was provided.
The opportunities to listen and learn from people's experiences will become a longer-term piece of work to understand how we can continually develop the ways we are working to best meet someone's needs.