A PIONEERING scheme that enables people to receive treatment in their own home was the focus of a visit by the Secretary of State for Health.
Commissioned by NHS West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Hospital at Home was launched last December as an alternative to hospital care.
It allows people in Chester and Ellesmere Port the freedom to choose to receive treatment for a range of illnesses and conditions in their own home instead of in hospital.
A team of GPs and nurses treat a number of conditions that are considered to be medically straight forward, including pneumonia, chronic lung disease (COPD), serious urinary tract and skin infections.
Andrew Lansley saw the service in action when he accompanied Dr John Hodgson, Hospital at Home’s medical director , on a patient visit.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “The Hospital at Home scheme, funded by NHS West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, means people in Chester and Ellesmere Port receive the same quality of care as they would in hospital, but in the comfort of their own home. Today, I have visited a patient who is benefiting from this scheme and I have seen the difference it makes to their life as well as the dedication of the staff involved.”
Mr Lansley met with patient William Baines and former patient Peter Huxley-Blythe to hear how the scheme helped them.
William, 76, from Helsby, said: “It’s given me a sense of freedom. I feel in control of my own life as opposed to sitting in a ward.”
Peter, 86, from Chester, said: “When I was told I could have the same treatment at home, it was a psychological uplift. Not only that, I got to know the nurses who visited and felt like I was being treated as person, not just a hospital bed number.”
