fix bar
fix bar
fix bar
fix bar
fix bar
fix bar

Welcome to Community Nursing

The Community Nursing team plays a key role in assessing and treating housebound patients in their home environment.

The team is committed to supporting patients to remain in their home and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions. It does this by working with patients and their family and/or carers, to develop individualised care plans that will include self-management and self-care plans. The ultimate aim is empowering patients to remain independent of their own health care needs by providing education and support.

The community nursing service is flexible and responsive.  It is committed to continually improving the delivery of care to people requiring nursing support in the community. The service prides itself on delivering high quality, holistic care.

The community nursing service is not an emergency service. All visits into the service are triaged and home visits are prioritised according to need. If the referral is not appropriate for community nursing services, the team will endeavour to signpost the referrer to the appropriate service.

The service will make home visits to patients for a variety of nursing interventions, such as:

   • Wound care
   • Diabetes care
   • Leg ulcer management
   • Catheter care
   • Palliative care
   • Injections/IV therapy
   • Phlebotomy
   • Bowel care.

We are an integrated service and work closely with other services such as tissue viability, the continence team and therapy teams to ensure patient needs are met.

Which areas does the Community Nursing service cover?

Community Nursing covers all of Tendring and Colchester residential areas for housebound patients.

The service is only able to accept referrals for patients who meet agreed housebound criteria.

Additionally, home visits by other services will only be available for patients who meet  housebound criteria.

The criteria for a housebound patient is one who:

  • Has a physical or psychological condition with documented evidence which states it would be detrimental to the patient’s condition or recovery to travel, OR
  • Requires assistance from more than one person to get in and out of a vehicle, OR
  • Needs medical/clinical support during a journey, OR
  • Is wheelchair-bound and has no carer available to assist them.

 

An individual will not be eligible for a home visit if they are able to leave their environment on their own or with minimal assistance to visit public or social recreational public services (including shopping).

How to access the service

Community Nursing will require an initial referral from a health professional, such as a GP, nurse or therapist. This is so we have a full medical history of the patient to enable a comprehensive assessment to be completed.

Once patients are under our care, they will be given a phone number so they can contact us for any advice prior to their next scheduled appointment.

Back to Top