New report reveals project saves NHS Wales over 62,000 bed days due to adaptations

A new evaluation report has been published by Care & Repair Cymru, which highlights the successes of a project that has worked to ensure that patients can be discharged quickly and return to a safe, warm, and accessible home over the last three years.

The Hospital to a Healthier Home (H2HH) project works with hospital staff, patients, and their families to identify and resolve housing and environmental issues that would otherwise prevent a hospital discharge.

It fills a gap in service provision between health, housing, and hospital discharge and offers longer-term support beyond works essential for discharge to make sure patients can return home to live safely and independently.

Crucially, the service saves clinical staff time. Many of the NHS staff Care & Repair Cymru interviewed referred to H2HH caseworkers as the ‘linkage’ between themselves and patients, their families, external companies, and community resources to save NHS staff time and resources.

H2HH is present in 17 hospitals across Wales. The new report reveals that it has saved the Welsh NHS over 62,000 bed days during the last three years and has had over 10,000 referrals.

The “incredible” statistic is down to the speed and volume of adaptations the service can complete, meaning patients referred to the project stay in hospital on average six days less than those who are not.

It also highlights the role the service plays in reducing readmissions. Patients who have been helped by the project have a 5.7 percent chance of readmission, compared to a health board average of around 12-15 percent, the paper notes.

In addition, the service has embedded good partnership working principles across Wales. It is a trusted go-to service for housing and environmental issues that would otherwise lead to delayed transfers of care. For every £1 spent, the service saves the Welsh NHS £8.60 in avoided delayed discharges of care alone.

The service improves patient flow and reduces readmissions, saving the NHS in Wales an estimated 25,000 bed days each year.

Faye Patton, Project Manager of Hospital to a Healthier Home, said: “This new report highlights the crucial role that the project plays in hospitals in Wales.

“To have had over 10,000 patients referred to us in the first three years of being a Wales-wide project is fantastic and shows the importance of collaboration and partnership in the health sector and why services like these must continue to receive funding.”

H2HH caseworkers work directly with hospital staff to identify older patients who have housing problems that may delay their return home. Care & Repair teams then work with patients and their families to carry out home improvements needed to enable patients to be discharged quickly and safely.

Eleri Evans, Head of Nursing at Ysbyty Gwynedd, sees the clear benefits of the project: “What we want is that little bit of additional resource to support at home, and that might be something as simple as a handrail. It’s as simple as that. Historically, we would have to do a social work referral, we would have to then wait for that social worker to be allocated. So, from our perspective, [H2HH] it’s invaluable.”

Tracy Daniel, Team Lead Orthopaedics at Princess of Wales Hospital, added: “The quality [of discharges] is a lot better since we’ve got Care & Repair because there are a lot more checks going on than we would have done and been able to action previously. If you’ve got people with, say, chest problems with damp in their property, that can be changed now, and stops them being readmitted again in the future because of the housing condition. So, it’s a knock-on preventative effect.”