NHS England has called on the independent/private healthcare sector to help it to manage the way that patients are discharged home from hospital.
Independent/private sector providers for hospital at home services and “reablement/rehab services” are being invited to take part in three hospital discharge schemes that form part of a £588m NHS drive to improve the way patients return home from hospital and to try to reduce the number of readmissions.
Danielle Henry, head of primary and community health policy at the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, welcomed the new framework “to help support local areas bolster their community health services and ensure patients can be more swiftly discharged from hospital and get the care they need closer to home”.
Henry said: “Independent community providers deliver a wide range of high quality, innovative services and, as part of this new framework, are pleased to be working with their NHS partners to ensure patients leaving hospital can access the recovery, rehabilitation and reablement support they need.”
Details of the new framework are set out in a NHS England document available here.