Patient with Covid treated at home thanks to new service

People who are ill with COVID-19 and who have not wanted to go into hospital, have been able to have treatment at home instead, thanks to a new service.

A Covid Active Treatment Bundle, by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) and the Acute Response Team in Thanet (ART), helps patients stay at home, or in care homes and with loved ones or their usual carers, while at the same time receiving hospital-level care.

Working closely with the Oximetry@home Service, the bundle is for patients who have a low oxygen level. Oximetry@home sees a patient’s oxygen levels monitored using a pulse oximeter; a small monitor clipped to their finger, to measure oxygen saturation levels, three times a day.

They, or their relatives or carers, record the results via a smartphone app, a web portal or a paper diary, with clinicians keeping a close eye on the readings and quickly escalating treatment if oxygen levels drop to worrying levels.

The teams at KCHFT and ART organise for oxygen cylinders to be delivered to homes and care homes, if needed. They also provide medicines, including dexamethasone, anti-coagulation drugs and fluids, some of which the team administers intravenously – as they support and care for patients who feel poorly, or could be at the end of their lives.

KCHFT Community Geriatrician Shelagh O’Riordan, who works in east Kent, said: “Getting the service up and running and providing the bundle has been a real team effort. To start with, it involved agreeing a policy, which would work across Kent and Medway. We have been working closely with Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group, GPs, pharmacists and our oxygen cylinder provider Dolby

“In east Kent, this service has seen our Frailty Team working closely with our respiratory team and ART in Thanet. We’ve also worked closely with care home staff, who have been amazing. It’s been a real team effort across the integrated care partnership.”

The Covid Active Treatment Bundle was launched in the second week of December and, to date, has been used for more than 200 care home residents, as well as for people in their own homes. It was offered to several residents at The Old Rectory Residential Home in New Romney in January. Manager Michelle Millard said this worked well for residents, their families and the care home.

She said: “It meant our residents could have hospital-level treatment, while staying in their own environment, which is much better for them. With us, they have 24-hour care, they have all of their own belongings around them and they’re in a familiar place. It makes all the difference and relatives were relieved to hear treatment could be given at home, rather than their loved ones going to hospital.

“We felt so supported. The whole experience made us feel empowered – that we were able to do something and to look after our residents ourselves.”