Getting hospital patients home as soon as possible

Sheffield CCG has been working with partners in the city to tackle the issue of delayed transfers of care - this is when patients are still in hospital when they don’t need to be, but can’t get home or into social care for a variety of reasons. This isn’t good for the patient, their family or for the NHS. Jointly, the CCG has looked at the reasons behind the delays and developed systems to make sure big improvements are made. This has moved everyone away from working as separate teams in organisations, and towards working as a single team to get the right solutions for patients.

Nicki Doherty, Director of Delivery Care Out of Hospital, said: "There are many advantages to tackling delayed transfers of care, firstly for patients because waiting in a hospital bed unnecessarily is not good – and of course, the NHS need to ensure that hospital beds are there for the people who really do need them.

"It is also a better use of the resources we have: especially during the winter, the CCG have a responsibility to ensure services can cope with any additional pressures – and this includes access to hospital beds."

It is thanks to many dedicated staff from across the CCG, Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust that this important work has begun, and is ongoing: there’s still more to do.