NHS 111 *lines for care
Specialist services have been set up via NHS 111 to help health and social care teams to get rapid access to clinical support.
A dedicated line has been set up for care homes to get urgent GP support for their residents at any time of the day or night.
In 2019, a review of NHS 111 star*lines was undertaken by the NHS England and Improvement (London Region) End of Life Care Clinical Network.
To find out more about how your care home team can access NHS 111 * lines please contact the EHCH team.
Red Bag scheme
The Red Bag scheme helps care home residents admitted to hospital to be discharged quicker. The bags, which contain key paperwork, medication and personal items like glasses, slippers and dentures, are handed to ambulance crews and travel with patients to hospital where they are then handed to the doctor.
Continuing to build on this work, alongside Sutton CCG and local authority, we are now working on developing the Digital Red Bag as part of NHS Digital Demonstrator projects.
Read about the Red Bag scheme and access videos, information and resources.
The South London Health Innovation Network also has Red Bag resources to support organisations wanting to roll out the scheme.
End of life care
It is so important to ensure discussions take place with residents and their relatives; that they share their wishes such as preferred place of death, maximum agreed medical support at the end of life and whether they would want to be resuscitated. Having these details documented makes all the difference if someone dies. Please ensure all staff are aware of residents end of life care wishes and any relevant documents are easily accessible.
PEACE & ReSPECT documents are used to support advance care planning (ACP) for nursing home residents prior to being discharged from hospital.
The documents include clinical advice and escalation decisions for future medical care, and acts as a guide for care home staff providing information about what they need to do for their residents when returning from hospital and how to support symptom control.
They are sent with residents when returning back to their nursing home, as agreed with GPs and care homes.
Coordinate my Care is an electronic care planning system which can be seen by London Ambulance staff, NHS 111 staff and GP Out of Hours services.
In: Best practice, Guides, Toolkits