Urgent Care Network
NHS Oxfordshire is working to improve and integrate the way in which we deliver social and community health services. The joint provision of social and health care in the community will help to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and enable people to be cared for in their homes wherever possible.
Proposals to achieve this include:
- Developing our intermediate care provision
- Providing enhanced services at some community hospitals
With the County Council’s Social and Community Services department, we have set up a countywide Urgent Care Network to redesign services to achieve a better sense of balance between care in hospitals and care at home, and to reduce our spending on urgent secondary care (acute hospitals).
Enhanced Community Hospitals
The Urgent Care Network proposes the provision of larger community hospitals on fewer sites. This would enable NHS Oxfordshire to develop enhanced services at some community hospitals supported by specialist nursing teams working in the community with GPs.
Developing Intermediate Care
Through its commissioning, NHS Oxfordshire wants to secure services that can offer patients, and those looking after them, a viable alternative to an acute hospital.
NHS Oxfordshire wants to:
- Increase the medical and nursing cover the care homes
- Improve the way we work with people who have long term conditions through proactive case management
- Ensure that a patient’s stay in an acute hospital bed is no longer than it needs to be.
Through the county Urgent Care Network, we are working together to improve access to assessment and specialist advice and to reduce the delays to patient discharge from hospital.
This includes investment in additional intermediate care services within Oxfordshire to ensure that the appropriate care is available to people when they return home.