Focus on services which offer care within two hours for eligible patients

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The Rapid Response Team supports patients aged 18 and above requiring an urgent two-hour response for a range of medical or therapy needs, either at home or in a care home

The North West NHS is on track to roll out a new service, which will ensure anyone over the age of 18 will have access to a community crisis response within two hours in their own home or community setting, if their health suddenly deteriorates, or they are in in crisis.

This will include individuals with underlying chronic conditions, at risk of hospital attendance or admission, with the aim of supporting their health needs ‘at home’ by multi-disciplinary teams responding quickly to changes in their condition, negating the need for admission to hospital or having to travel to a GP practice.

Once referred to the service people will be triaged and have a short assessment to establish what support is needed, and where required a member of the team will be deployed within two hours.

Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale already has a Rapid Response Team that operates 8am–8pm 7 days a week with plans to extend this offer to 10pm from April 2022. The Rapid Response Team supports patients aged 18 and above requiring an urgent two-hour response for a range of medical or therapy needs, either at home or in a care home, with the aim to prevent an avoidable hospital admission/Emergency Department attendance.

Any healthcare professional can refer a patient to the service, using a single point of access number.

The Rapid Response Team is an integral part of the Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale urgent and emergency care system, providing a good level of deflection from the acute sites by providing a timely two-hour response to NWAS, care homes and GP practices as the three main sources of referrals in addition to other services cross the HMR health and care system.

Sheena Hennell is the Urgent Emergency Care Senior Transformation Programme Manager for the North West Region and is one of the leads for the development of the service.

She said: “We’re working to ensure that the service is available to everyone across the region from April 2022. The idea of the service is to support the person to stay in their own home and to avoid unnecessary visits to Emergency Departments.

“Attending hospital can often incur long waiting times and cause unnecessary distress for people who would be more appropriately treated in their own home. It will also help reduce the number of people who have to attend Emergency Departments when they can receive the right care in the right place (i.e. home first) at the right time.”

NHS teams have been working to establish full geographical coverage and currently all areas now have a level of service available. The aim is to make sure that this is available seven days a week, between the hours of 8am – 8pm by the beginning of April.

Early indications show that patient experience has improved, there are faster response times, and access to treatment for people who need it, and people are supported to remain in their own homes.