Our joint Rapid Response and Home First teams provide a crisis response for individuals who’re at risk of hospital admission and help people return home quickly after a severe or sudden illness when they’ve been discharged from a general hospital.
The service is for people aged 18 or over who live in the London Borough of Ealing or who’re registered with an Ealing GP (family doctor).
Similar services are sometimes referred to as intermediate care, integrated care or virtual wards.
Rapid Response
Our Rapid Response service operates 24 hours a day. We can visit and assess you quickly, offering you care in your home – usually for around five days. We aim to visit patients within 2 hours of referral, if required.
If you develop an infection which needs more specialist treatments, for example, we can come to your home to care for you rather than you having to visit hospital. Or, if you’ve injured yourself in a fall, our physiotherapists can support you at home to get you back on your feet.
We also work closely with Clayponds Hospital and can arrange a brief admission to the community hospital for people who need extra support for a short period – usually around one week. Our team can help you get home more quickly and will continue supporting you once you’re there.
We have all the full range of expertise in one team and we work closely with your GP. You'll get the right help quickly without having to wait.
Home First
Our Home First service (sometimes known as discharge to assess) works with all the major hospitals which patients from Ealing attend. We can visit patients quickly after discharge to ensure they’re safe, have any equipment they need to stay safe, and that any care needs are met. The team will undertake an assessment to determine if a referral for additional therapy is needed to help people recover further.
For reanablement care, see Ealing Council website
The types of conditions or situations with which we can help includes:
- Falls without apparent injuries
- Urinary tract infection, respiratory tract infection, cellulitis
- Worsening of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or congestive heart failure
- Dehydration
- Unstable diabetes
- Elderly patients with increasing frailty who are at risk of admission to hospital
- If a carer has become unwell.
If you think you would benefit from our service, please discuss this with your GP.
The following people can refer patients to the Rapid Response service:
- GPs and members of
apatients’ health and care teams, for example, care home staff, district nurses and social workers (although a discussion with the patients’ GP is encouraged prior to referral). A healthcare professional should have been involved in an assessment of the patient within the last 72 hours - Hospital staff from Ealing Hospital and other neighbouring hospitals, including urgent care centre, emergency department, medical and therapy staff on hospital wards
- Ambulance staff, after attending a patient’s home or from the clinical hub
- Out of hours primary care services
- NHS 111 or an urgent care centre
- Any other appropriately qualified professional.
Patients wishing to self-refer should discuss their needs with NHS 111.