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Airedale NHS Foundation Trust

Airedale

NHS Foundation Trust

Welcome to Airedale NHS Foundation Trust

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust is an award winning hospital and community services trust providing high quality, personalised, acute, elective, specialist and community care for a population of over 200,000 people.

Here at Airedale we have a Discharge Lounge and each day suitable patients may be transferred to the discharge lounge as a normal part of the discharge process.

Our catchment population stretches as far as the Yorkshire Dales and the National Park in North Yorkshire, reaching areas of North Bradford and Guiseley in West Yorkshire and extending into Colne and Pendle in the East of Lancashire. We provide services from our main hospital site, Airedale Hospital and at other locations across the community – such as Castleberg Hospital near Settle, Coronation Hospital in Ilkley and Skipton Hospital. We are also part of the Bradford District and Craven place and West Yorkshire and Harrogate Integrated Care System. Being discharged – what happens?

Discharge Lounge Here at Airedale we have a Discharge Lounge and each day suitable patients may be transferred to the discharge lounge as a normal part of the discharge process. We have a designated discharge team that will be responsible for the final stages of your discharge from hospital and they will ensure that this is completed as soon as reasonably possible to ensure that your discharge experience is a positive one. Here’s what the Discharge Lounge can do… • We will help get patients ready and pack them up • We can help book transport for patients • We take community transfers and we can accommodate stretcher patients • We can help Acute Assessment Unit and Emergency

Department short stay patients • We provide District Nurse referrals (except for wounds) • We can offer refreshments and light meals • All patients are safely taken to relatives at the main entrance

Once completed the electronic discharge prescription will be sent to the pharmacy.

Transport home You will be required to arrange your own transport home unless the ward has deemed it necessary that you require an ambulance. However, we can assist with helping to book transport for you. If an ambulance is required this will be booked and you will be made aware. Please liaise with the nurse in charge to agree a suitable time for your own transport to collect you so that we can ensure that everything is ready. It is important that you have access to your home, please ensure that: you have a key, have a key safe access number, or have a relative or friend to let you into your home. In the unlikely event that you become unwell in the discharge lounge you will be reviewed by a doctor or experienced nurse and a decision made as to whether to continue with your discharge or readmit you to hospital. The discharge lounge is equipped with emergency equipment. Discharge Medicines The discharge medicines process begins when the hospital doctor tells you that you can go home. If you need medicines to take home, the doctor must prescribe them on a discharge prescription. The doctor may not be able to do this straight away, for example, if other patients need to be seen on the ward round or when very ill patients need to take priority. Once completed the electronic discharge prescription will be sent to the pharmacy. The pharmacy staff will make sure that the prescribed medicines are the right ones for you and that they are labelled with the correct instructions for use. Your discharge medicines will then be delivered to the ward, where nursing staff will provide you with information about them including what each medicine is for and any common side effects associated with your medicines. You will have at least two weeks’ supply of your regular prescribed medicines to take home (or one week’s supply if you take your medicines from a pharmacy-filled compliance aid) including any medicines that you started during your stay in hospital. This will give you time see your GP and arrange to get ongoing supplies of your medicines if you need them. Your GP will also receive a copy of your discharge prescription within a week of you leaving hospital.

Airedale

NHS Foundation Trust

The Home from Hospital team and volunteers ease the process of settling back home. Specialist teams to plan, help and manage your recovery

Frail Elderly Pathway (FEP) team Who we are We are a specialist multidisciplinary team comprising of a number of professions working collaboratively in order to provide the best care possible for our patients. Our team includes a nurse manager as our team leader, physiotherapists, occupational therapist, dietitians and generic therapy assistants. What we do We work as an integrated team to provide an enabling and supportive discharge planning service to patients living in the Airedale, Wharfedale, Craven and East Lancashire areas. Our aim is to prevent unnecessary admissions and readmissions to hospital, as well as quick, safe and well considered discharges from the acute admissions unit and the emergency department. We firmly bestow the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust values, by putting the patient at the centre of their care. We aim to keep relatives and carers informed at all times of the discharge planning process. Who we work with We work with a wide range of different professions both within the hospital and in the community. These include: • Social Services including an FEP liaison • Medical staff within the hospital, such as consultants, junior doctors, pharmacists and advanced clinical practitioners • District nurses and community matrons • Homecare providers • Community therapy rehabilitation teams • Volunteer led services such as Age UK, Home from

Hospital and Carers’ Resource • General Practitioners Castleberg Hospital Castleberg community hospital is located on the outskirts of Settle, in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. The hospital provides bed-based intermediate care – often called ‘step-up and step-down’ care – for 10 people. This involves short periods of assessment and rehabilitation designed to enable you to return home. It also provides short-term nursing care, pain relief and support for some people as they near the end of their life. Newly refurbished accommodation within the hospital includes two four-bedded wards, two single rooms, and family, therapy, treatment and day rooms. The experienced nursing, therapy and domestic services teams providing care and support at the hospital include an equal mix of new and returning staff. They will continue the hospital’s long-held tradition of providing a high-quality, friendly and caring service for people living in Craven. Home from Hospital

Our Home from Hospital Service helps people to be more confident and comfortable when returning home. This is a service for adults who live in Bradford, Airedale and Wharfedale who are being discharged home and need extra support. It is a free service and helps those who: - are aged 18 and over - live in North Yorkshire - Have been at A&E, had a day procedure or a hospital stay People we can help include: - patients at risk of readmission to hospital - people worried about how they will cope when they get home - people with dementia and long term conditions - people living alone and people living with someone How do we help people? The Home from Hospital team and volunteers ease the process of settling back home. They enable people to regain confidence and independence. The services includes a home visit to discuss and concerns and immediate needs may have and: - a basic hamper - weekly visits and calls for up to six weeks - liaising with health and social care professionals - help to access appropriate benefits

- help to organise ongoing support eg domiciliary services and befriending Contact the Home from Hospital team on 01274 531 377. You can also contact Sharon Eccleston the Home from Hospital Co-ordinator on 01756 700888 at seccleston@carersresource.org.

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