Vulnerable benefit from new home visiting service in Sheffield

The Sheffield GP practices who make up the Sevenhills Primary Care Network set up the new home visiting service in response to the Covid-19 pandemic so that vulnerable and frail people who may not be seeking help as they normally would can be seen and don’t have to go into the doctors.

By working together the practices can provide more personalised and coordinated health and social care, supporting people to gain control of their health and wellbeing, helping them to live well and independently as well as reducing ill health and unnecessary hospital admissions.

Over 700 vulnerable people have now been seen since the service was set up with 150 patients seen in the first five days of the service running in June.

As part of the visits, patients with long term conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease can be safely seen at home by a healthcare assistant for their review and check-up. The visits are also helping to tackle isolation and vulnerability.

Patients will have tests depending on their condition, such as bloods, urine, blood pressure, heart rate, weight and foot checks. They are also asked what their biggest worry is to identify any unknown clinical and social issues that they could receive help with.

After the visits, the results are reviewed by a GP and they have a remote consultation with a practice nurse over the phone to talk through the results. The practice nurse can then refer them to the relevant people such as a pharmacist for a medicine review, a GP, physiotherapist or link worker depending on their needs.

Dr Lucy Cormack, Clinical Director for the Sevenhills Primary Care Network and Primary Care Sheffield practices, said, “The home visiting service is making a massive difference to patients in the area.

“We have also seen and been able to help people who are struggling to buy food, people worried about their memory, weight gain and people dealing with pain or not able to get around the house.”

The service will run for as long as the patient need continues.

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