The Community IV Therapy service, working alongside the Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) team, supports people who need medicines intravenously (directly into the bloodstream by a needle or tube), but when they otherwise don’t need any further medical treatment that requires them to be in hospital.
While this service has previously been available to a limited number of people in their own homes, additional clinics are now being rolled out at community venues so that more people can be seen.
Lincoln Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) is the first venue to start the clinics, which are now available seven days a week.
Mark Lincoln (49), from Welton, was one of the first patients to access the service at the CDC. He had injured his hand and, following surgery, needed IV antibiotics to help treat a bone infection. Mark had been admitted to hospital in Derby and expected to be there for four or five days, but ended up staying for 10 days receiving the antibiotics.
He said: “I wasn’t poorly and I felt absolutely fine, but I was just waiting in hospital every day to receive the antibiotics. When I got home, the community team were coming every day to continue to give me the antibiotics, but I was asked if I would be interested in coming to a clinic rather than waiting at home.
“It’s been great. I was given an appointment time and wasn’t kept waiting. As soon as I had finished, I could get on with my day. Having this new clinic should hopefully help enable more patients to access this service, which is better for us patients and will help with bed pressures in hospitals.”
Patients receiving IV therapy might need to continue their treatment for several weeks or even months.
Delivering care in a different way through community clinics means more people can be seen, helping some patients to be safely discharged home from hospital quicker and others prevented from being admitted at all.
This is also a great example of how Lincolnshire’s longer term clinical strategy and the national NHS 10 Year Plan is being made a reality by delivering services closer to home in the community, as part of Lincolnshire’s Hospital at Home programme.
Holly Cook, Clinical Service Lead, said: “The start of clinics at Lincoln CDC marks a significant step forward in the expansion of IV therapy services in the community.
“We want patients to have a positive experience and we know we can improve this by helping them to remain independent but safely supported and monitored throughout the duration of their treatment closer to home. The clinics allow patients to make an appointment at a convenient time which works for them, around their daily routines, so they don’t have to wait in all day to be seen.
“By delivering care from a single location for patients who are able to attend, it will also save a considerable amount of travel time for clinical staff, and they can dedicate that time helping more patients.”