COLUMN: Looking ahead to care in the winter months
This column is provided by Caroline Landon, chief operating officer at Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group ...
As we move into winter, NHS services across Lincolnshire are preparing to ensure they can continue to provide safe, timely care to patients.
We all know that winter in the NHS can be tough, with challenges posed by weather conditions, circulation of winter viruses in our communities and increased ill health causing increased pressure on services.
This never comes as a surprise, and, each year, we put a lot of energy into planning for the winter, to ensure that we are bolstering our services and investing in new innovations so that we can care for the patients who need us.
These are the things we can do in the NHS, which include enhancing our staffing, bed numbers, access to community services and patient transport. But our population also play a really vital part in ensuring that winter is not a season to be feared.
Pressure often emerges in our acute hospitals, but patients need to be aware of the huge range of NHS and non-NHS services out there that they can access to get the care that they need in a timely manner.
Many conditions can be dealt with more quickly by your pharmacist or GP, and if seen early you can sometimes avoid ending up with a hospital visit.
If you are unsure, the 111 service is the place to go, as they are on hand to offer expert advice on where to go for the help you need – signposting to the most appropriate service that is the easiest for you to access.
Statistically, we know that patients who ‘talk before they walk’ get seen more quickly to get the help they need and get on the road to recovery. That leaves our acute hospitals free to care for those really need that intensive, specialist care that our amazing colleagues are so good at providing.
Supported by our community teams and those working in social care, together we are there for you when you need it.
This year, we’re investing in innovations that will help to make care smoother for our patients, including post-discharge pharmacy support, additional therapy capacity in community hospitals, additional mental health capacity for the East coast area where it is most needed and additional transport capacity to support patient discharges from hospital. This is in addition to targeted work with communities that we know struggle most to access the right care for them at the right time.
Together, let’s make this is a happy, healthy and safe winter for all.