Spotting and acting on the signs of deterioration in a patient or care home resident is vital to ensuring patient safety. We’re working across primary, community and acute care to help early identification of acutely unwell people.
Care provider training and resources on use of RESTORE2
Recognising when a person’s health is deteriorating is important, particularly at this critical time. We are working, as part of the NHS response, to enhance the confidence of care staff working in the community in detecting and responding to deterioration (through use of RESTORE2) and communicating concerns to healthcare professionals. We have worked closely with primary care and care providers to ensure our free online training and resources enable care staff to feel confident in seeking the right support at the right time from primary care. Read more about our virtual training available to care homes.
ReSPECT
ReSPECT stands for Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment. The ReSPECT form creates a personalised recommendation for someone’s clinical care in emergency situations where they are not able to make decisions or express their wishes.
The process is that trained staff, often in primary care, guide selected patients through an extended conversation. The process results in a completed ReSPECT form that details the person’s wishes for their care, along with appropriate clinical recommendations. Professionals including paramedics, out-of-hours doctors, care home staff and hospital staff will be better able to make immediate decisions about a person’s emergency care and treatment if they have quick access to agreed clinical recommendations on a ReSPECT form. Read more about ReSPECT.
NEWS2
National Early Warning Score2 (known as NEWS2) is the latest version of the National Early Warning Score, developed by The Royal College of Physicians (RCP). The use of early warning scores is being recommended in primary and community care settings. Currently, all acute trusts, out-of-hours GP services, mental health trusts, community service providers and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in our region have signed up to support the adoption and spread of NEWS2, and communicating this score at the interfaces of care across the system. You can watch our video to show NEWS2 in action within primary care. Read more about NEWS2.
COVID Oximetry @home and COVID virtual wards
We supported the continued set-up of COVID Oximetry @home and virtual ward services in our region. Our local support offer made use of our existing expertise, infrastructure and resources. We worked closely with NHS partners and leaders in primary care to produce a series of webinars, briefing papers and a phased implementation support pack. Read more about COVID Oximetry @home.
By mid-May 2021 over 2000 people with COVID have been enrolled in COVID Oximetry @home and COVID virtual ward services across the West of England. Read more about how we worked rapidly and collaboratively to roll out these services across our region, alongside reviewing a case study exploring the patient’s journey.
