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Private provider, Healthcare at Home published a report earlier this year with Dr Foster Intelligence, which looks at the service changes being introduced by NHS Birmingham East and North with Healthcare at Home. They estimated that if the NHS adopted similar homecare models across just four areas (End of Life Care, Chemotherapy at Home, Enhanced Supported Discharge and Long Term Conditions) the NHS could make an annual saving in excess of £1.2bn. The report uses the proven Birmingham East and North service model and extrapolates it to a national level to look at how and in what treatment areas these services could be adopted more widely.

Services provided by companies like Healthcare at Home include high-tech nursing care 24 hours a day. A national network of specialist nurses administer a range of treatments for patients with complex conditions in the comfort of their own home, as an alternative to hospital based care. Treatments are provided across many therapy areas, including chemotherapy, blood product transfusion, IV antimicrobial therapy and care for patients with chronic diseases and long-term conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The local nurse teams work as part of the multidisciplinary team within the local health economy, sometimes providing clinic support as well as outreach services for their patients.

Healthcare at Home has recently launched a new Oral Oncology Therapy Service which enables cancer specialists to offer appropriate patients the choice of home nursing and/or home delivery for some or all of their treatment. This new service is already delivering capacity relief in specialist oncology units and hospital pharmacies as well as supporting a better quality of life for significant numbers of cancer patients.

The provision of end of life care at home is an area that forms a significant proportion of the workload for many health, social care and voluntary sector staff, looking after the estimated 500,000 people who die in England each year, as well as their families and carers. Healthcare at Home works with PCTs and local providers to design a service that is suited to their patients and their local needs. Their End of Life care programme or Family Liaison Service sits alongside existing local health and social care services and is designed to give patients and their carers greater control and choice in where they were treated whilst avoiding unplanned, emergency admissions.

The service offers patients and their carers family support and co-ordination, nursing triage, a rapid response service and drug access support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

At the heart of all Healthcare at Home services sits the Care Bureau - a multi-purpose hub that supports Healthcare at Home?s clinical service models by bringing together clinical homecare and pharmaceutical home delivery with rapid response, triaging, data collection and outcomes monitoring.