More patients at home under Severn Hospice nursing change

The charity said it cares for four out of five patients at home

More patients who need a hospice's specialist care will be able to stay at home in future after it made changes to community nursing services.

Severn Hospice, which is based in Telford and Shrewsbury, cares for four out of five patients at home.

From this week it was enhancing community activity, so those people have access to more hours of care and are able to receive more services.

The charity decided to join two specialist nursing teams together.

The change would see both Outreach and Hospice at Home staff involved in a single extended service, the hospice said.

The new structure "will enable those individual elements of care to be better planned and then delivered".

Severn Hospice is based in Telford and Shrewsbury

Outreach nurses from the charity, who work alongside NHS professionals and private healthcare providers, give hands-on nursing care in a service that is now available seven days a week, rather than five, with more hours of care in the day.

The Hospice at Home team cares specifically for people in the final stages of their illness and operates day and night.

Nurse practitioners - nurses with additional skills and clinical authority - will now be available at weekends and on bank holidays.

The hospice's non-clinical services of social work and chaplaincy are also being changed, so they also can better support patients and families at home and help more of them.

The charity cares for people in Shropshire and Mid Wales living with incurable illness.

Because the reorganisation creates more hours for staff to see people at home, the extra capacity allows more people to be seen.