OTnews July 2023 | Page 30

Single-handed care

Feature

A crisis in community care ?

Diane Lane and Sam Dawson evaluate a system-wide training project for single-handed care to support reduction in delays to hospital discharges .

T he number of patients experiencing delays to their discharge from hospital has been increasing , resulting in far reaching impacts across the health and social care system ( Flinders and Scobie 2022 ).

In the period from April 2021 to April 2022 , the number of patients who no longer had a reason to stay in hospital and were awaiting discharge had increased by 57 %, equating to one in six patients ( Flinders and Scobie 2022 ).

The impact of delayed discharges in combination with prolonged stays in hospital are well documented . Evidence indicates that longer lengths of stay ( in excess of three weeks ) impact on people ’ s longer-term health outcomes and success of interventions , such as short-term reablement ( Flinders and Scobie 2022 ).

They argue that ‘ there are significant capacity issues across community services ’, with approximately 24 % of patients awaiting home care , with longer delays for those requiring support from two carers or more .

Single-handed care ( or reduced carer handling ) is a term used to describe a process in which alternative methods are used to safely move a patient with fewer carers than previously may have been used .

The process utilises equipment , techniques and strategies , alongside a single carer or reduced care support ( Harrison 2017 ).

There has been a 6 % increase in demand on adult social care during the period 2015-16 to 2019-20 , and with the number of people living past age 75 set to increase by 60 % over the next 20 years , it is imperative to support the system to reduce demand on capacity .

Discharge planning should start from the day of admission ; however , it often becomes crisis planning as opposed to

30 OTnews July 2023