EO Community Stories – City Health Care Partnership CIC: On the front-line in the battle against COVID-19

City Health Care Partnership CIC provides health and care services in Hull, the East Riding of Yorkshire, Knowsley, Wigan and St Helens. Community nursing and care often gets forgotten about in times of crisis, but our colleagues are right there on the front-line in the battle against Covid-19. Our district nurses are still visiting patients who can’t get out, often at great personal risk as despite our best efforts it’s not always possible to know if the patient or someone else in the household has symptoms of Coronavirus.

We are working with our local hospital trust in Hull to allow them to discharge patients earlier to free up beds, by offering wards and staff in community hospitals and care homes, and we have worked with our local hospice to use an empty ward, turning the whole project round in less than 10 days. We will be offering ‘drive through’ testing for health service staff, making it possible for people to go back to work if they test negative and relieving pressure on a very stretched workforce.

We have launched an online consultation app for our GP practices, meaning patients can be seen more quickly and with less risk and are looking at similar technology for other services including those for children and young people, so that our safeguarding team can check up on families at risk. Last week we launched a recruitment drive to encourage local people to sign up to work as healthcare assistants, nurses and allied health professionals (physiotherapists, dietitians, occupational therapists etc) and have already had over 250 applications.

 

Lucy Flower – Communications and Social Business LeadCity Health Care Partnership CIC