Home Care is Best Care

If you stay in bed for long periods of time you lose mobility, fitness and muscle strength, which makes it harder for you to regain your independence. This is known as deconditioning. It is a decline in function and for older people with frailty, this may start within hours of them lying on a trolley or bed.

This results in a large proportion of patients:

• Experiencing a delay in being discharged
• Not being able to do normal, every day activities and then becoming dependent on others
• Needing to use walking aids
• Losing bladder or bowel continence

By getting up, getting dressed and moving, you can help maintain muscle strength and your ability to do things for yourself. When you’re at home, just doing ordinary day-to-day activities like getting up to make a cup of tea helps to maintain muscle strength. In contrast, when you’re in an unfamiliar environment like a hospital ward, you may be more likely to fall because you don’t have those familiar things around you to steady yourself if you lose your balance for a moment.

Find out more about deconditioning and how to prevent it here.

Good sleep is essential for a long and healthy life, but it’s even more important when you're recovering from an injury or illness. Hospitals are busy places with lights, talking and other noises from equipment, which can mean you don't sleep very well. There’s no bed like your own bed when it comes to getting a good night’s rest.

Being in familiar surroundings with support from your loved ones is one of the best things for mental wellbeing. Hospitals are unfamiliar and can be very confusing, which increases your risk of developing sudden confusion (delirium). When you are in hospital for a long period of time, you may also lose confidence in your own ability to manage your day-to-day needs. With the right support, many people can return to living their life the way that they want to.

When you're unwell your body is often less able to fight off infections. We do everything we can to prevent you from developing an infection, but the risk is usually lower at home where there are fewer unwell people under one roof.

Although there are robust measures in place to prevent infections in our hospitals, there is always the risk of getting infections in hospital. Data suggests that elderly people are more prone to infections than other people in the hospital.

When you get admitted to hospital, there is an increase in the risk of developing blood clots in the deep veins of the legs (hospital associated thrombosis). There are prevention measures in place to avoid thrombosis, however our data suggests a higher risk, especially in elderly patients.

We will talk to you about what is important to you. We will do our best to answer any questions or worries you may have and work with you and your family to achieve your goals.

The best place for your care and recovery is usually your own home.

We will talk to you about your options. We want to make sure that, if you do not need to admitted to hospital, the right care is in place to support you to get better.

Where appropriate, and with your consent, we will involve your family or carers in making decisions about your health and care. You might find it helpful to include them in our discussions.