Care comes closer to home for young people thanks to new “hospital at home” service
The Hospital at Home (H@H) virtual ward for babies, children, and young people at North Mid allows young people to get hospital-level care at home safely, enabling them to spend their time recovering with their families, who are also actively involved in their holistic, patient-centred care.
Launched in May 2023, the service started with just three virtual beds for patients. Just a few months later, thanks to the dedication and hard work of the multi-disciplinary team, including nursing, consultants and administrative staff it has grown to 12 virtual beds, providing service from 8 am to 8 pm, 7 days a week for babies, children and young people aged 0-16 (and 16–18-year-olds with complex need) who live in Haringey and the N postcodes of Enfield.
The H@H paediatric service provides an alternative to hospital referral or admission for babies, children, and young people with common acute illnesses like asthma, croup and jaundice. If patients meet the care pathway criteria, they are then looked after by a nurse and an on-call consultation paediatrician in a virtual ward.
Marking the formal opening of our H@H paediatric service at North Mid – and in theme with its virtual elements – a ribbon-cutting virtual ceremony was held on Tuesday 26 September at North Mid. Kate Pye, deputy director children and young people nursing from NHS England, graced the occasion with her presence during the well-attended ceremony.
Anne Biggs, matron for children’s community nursing at North Mid, said: “Our Hospital at Home (H@H) children’s service enables us to deliver safe, effective, high quality and timely care for our babies, children’s young people and their families from our local borough, in their own homes.”
“We are extremely proud of our H@H service at North Mid which now provides twelve virtual beds to our local area which are supported by a team of paediatric nurses attending patients in the community. This means that beds will be available to be utilised by more acutely unwell patients on the wards. This is a long-term initiative which seeks to contribute to the health inequalities of our local populations.”
“It has been four months since we rolled out this project and our team is extremely proud of where we are now and what has been achieved. I would like to thank everyone who has helped make it a success.”
#TeamNorthMid’s Hospital at Home(H@H) paediatric service is our proactive approach to bringing safe, effective, and timely care closer to home for young people, whilst improving the overall patient experience.
They say charity begins at home. And indeed, so does caring as our Hospital at Home paediatric service shows.
Virtual Ward, what? It’s not science fiction. It’s real, safe, reliable, and timely care.
Wonder what it’s like to be looked after in a virtual ward. Here’s one nurse’s account.
If a patient is acutely unwell with a short-term medical condition and requires nursing and medical treatment that can be done safely at home, they will be referred to H@H team by a clinician.
The patient is made aware of the referral and given our information leaflet. Within one hour of referring the patient is contacted by the nursing team to do an initial phone triage and introduction where we explain what we will be doing, why we will be doing it, on-going plans and actions and assessing any risk factors.
The patients are offered follow up visits or telephone calls to ensure families feel safe and happy with the end of their treatment and their child is doing well. We invite families to complete the Friends and Family Test and feedback to the service which very valuable information for us to improve the service we are giving.