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2011

For  a few years now, Kettering General Hospital has been reminding people to only visit the A&E department in an absolute emergency, as increasing numbers of patients is causing greater pressure than ever before on stretched resources. Choose Well is a campaign which health bosses are keen to create awareness for.  The campaign urges people in need of medical assistance to seek help from the appropriate source i.e. GP, chemist or NHS, rather than head straight to A&E. The elderly make up one quarter of all A&E admissions.  With this in mind, it is good to see that a new, GP-led strategy called the Community Elderly Care Service has appeared to have had an immediate impact on reducing the number of A&E admissions among this age group. Since December 2010, the number of elderly people visiting A&E at Kettering General Hospital has fallen by almost 600, saving the NHS approximately 2m and allowing hard pressed doctors and nurses to spend more time on patients. The scheme involves specialist nurses and consultants visiting elderly patients in their homes, developing tailor-made care plans and treating them at Shaw healthcare’s Spinneyfields Specialist Care Centre in Rushden and focusing on moving them out of hospital into the community following comprehensive assessments.