What we do

The Intensive Home Support Service (IHSS) will provide support for you in your own home.

A team of clinical staff will assess, investigate, support and help you avoid any unnecessary hospital admissions or to help you to return home from hospital where possible.  We will provide high-quality nursing and therapy care delivered for you at home.

Once your needs have been met, and your condition is stable, the team will provide on-going monitoring and support, under the care of your own GP.

The service provides:

  • Advanced assessment, clinical examination and diagnosis
  • Your prescription
  • Monitoring, including blood pressure and temperature
  • Taking blood for laboratory analysis
  • Support, information and education
  • Any necessary equipment and help
  • Care package service, if required
  • Therapy requirements

The team will provide preventative, responsive and active nursing care and therapy, 7 days a week depending on your individuals needs.

Visits may take place between 8.30am and 10pm.  Should visits be required during the night, these will be allocated to the Night Nursing Team.

The Intensive Home Support Service is able to offer urgent assessments of patients, within a guaranteed 2 hours of referral.  This means that the patient and their carers receive some additional support and reassurance that their care plan is sufficient.

Intensive Home Support Service staff are able to check that the patient can use their inhalers correctly, and  work with them on relaxation techniques to aid inhaler technique, if that is needed.  If their condition changes then IHSS staff are able to organise a hospital admission or additional investigations or therapy. This complete package of assessment and review of the care plan hopefully has the effect of helping the patient to feel reassured that they will not be left on their own if their condition deteriorates. 

This can reduce the need for them to present to Urgent Care for a second opinion, and helps the patient to be aware of what support there is in the community, in addition to their regular GP service.

Three example reasons why respiratory patients may be referred to the IHSS are:

  1. When the patient needs to be reviewed after initiating antibiotics or oral steroids
  2. When a patient who has COPD wonders if they should start their “rescue pack” of antibiotics and or steroids
  3. When the person has a  degree of anxiety associated with the sensation of breathlessness.

The process for GPs to arrange an IHSS visit for a patient is straightforward.  Simply phone ICAT on 01282 805989 between 8am and 10pm where the referral is taken via the telephone and the most appropriate response is allocated from there – whether that be a therapist, a nurse, a social package – or all three!