Hospital At Home – South Manchester
Hospital at Home provides the care and monitoring that patients expect in a hospital, delivered in the place they call home.
It brings together health professionals as a team to work around you and combines the latest health monitoring technology with the specialist knowledge and skills of staff.
Through this new way of working, suitable patients can stay at home and receive the same level of care as if they were on a hospital ward. Staff will come to you at home and/or remotely monitor you using technology that keeps us updated on your condition (like heart rate and blood pressure). We call it ‘the care of hospital, the comfort of home’.
Our aim is to support patients through their illness by enabling them to recover in the comfort of their own homes. This approach reduces the risk of de-conditioning, falls, and infections, while allowing patients to stay connected with their families, carers, and communities. Ultimately, this benefits patients and alleviates pressure on secondary and primary care services.
Many patients suitable for the Hospital at Home service present with frailty conditions, decompensated heart failure, electrolyte imbalances, acute infections or require pain management input. These areas are prioritised as they align well with the Hospital at Home model. However, other conditions are considered when triaging patients for the service.
The Hospital at Home South Manchester Community Team supports patients with a South Manchester GP or postcode. Patients outside these areas may be better served by another local Hospital at Home team or the Acute Hospital at Home South Manchester team, which covers certain areas of Cheshire, Stockport and Trafford.
Who is not suitable for Hospital at Home?
Unfortunately, our service is unable to support patients who fall into the following categories:
- under 18 years old
- Those with maternity, gynaecological, or pregnancy needs
- Patients experiencing a mental health crisis
- Patients with a new oxygen requirement
- Patients with worsening acute kidney injury (AKI)
- Patients who do not consent to home visits or refuse the service.
- Those requiring acute or complex diagnostics
- Individuals who only need the resumption of a pre-existing treatment plan or package
Hospital at Home is a service that delivers acute, hospital-level care in a home setting for conditions that would typically require inpatient care. Hospital at Home aims to prevent avoidable hospital admissions and support early discharges, thereby reducing the risk of readmission. The service enables patients to receive assessments, care, monitoring and treatment at home from a dedicated multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals; dependent on need this can either be remotely or in person, allowing patients to be treated at their usual place of residence for up to 14 days as an alternative to hospital care.
Our multidisciplinary team includes General Practitioners (GPs), Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs), Clinical Nurse Specialists, Physiotherapists, Health Care Support Workers, Therapy Assistants, Administrative Staff, Pharmacists, and Social Work Professionals. Clinical management discussions are held every weekday and are overseen by a Consultant Geriatricians, who maintain clinical responsibility of the patients under the care of the Hospital at Home Service.
If you are being cared for by the Hospital at Home South Manchester community team and need to contact us, please call us via the number given to you by the team.
The Hospital at Home service is contactable from 08:00 – 18:00, seven days a week.
If you are calling outside of our service hours for non-emergency advice, please contact NHS 111 or your GP Surgery in the first instance. In case of an emergency please contact 999 for immediate advice or support.
The Hospital at Home service is open from 08:00 to 20:00, seven days a week. External Referrals are sent through the South Manchester Crisis Response Team.
There are two routes of referral to the service:
- Step up from community – where a community health care professional identifies a patient who requires the service to avoid a hospital admission)
- Step down from hospital – where a hospital health care professional identifies a patient who could be discharged early and cared for at home
Our final referral time is 15:00. This allows us adequate time to respond to the referral.
For patients being discharged from the hospital and requiring a new care package, the discharging team must complete a GMSD form. Additionally, the patient must be home by 15:00 for care to commence on the same day.
Referral’s can be made via the South Manchester Single Point of Access (SPA) on 0300 303 9650.
(The number for NWAS referrals ONLY is 0161 667 3292)
Page last reviewed: November 2024
Next review due: November 2025