Scottish Government invests £3.6m in Hospital at Home for older people

The Scottish Government has announced an additional investment of £3.6 million to fund its Hospital at Home initiative for older people in 2024- 2025.

Hospital at Home is a remote care scheme which supports people to receive acute support treatments, such as an intravenous drip or oxygen supply, at home. It also provides access to hospital tests under the care of a consultant from a patient’s home.

The latest government funding brings the total funding for the initiative to more than £15m since 2020, according to a press release published by the Scottish government on 7 June 2024.

A report on the progress of the service, published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) in March 2024, found that the scheme has already exceeded some of its targets.

This includes an increase of more than 57% in total bed numbers between April 2023 and March 2024 – which is above the Scottish Government’s target of a 50% increase.

Additionally, the number of patients using the service has grown 24% over the same period – from 11,686 up to 14,467.

Neil Gray, Scottish health secretary said: “These figures from HIS show that Hospital at Home is becoming an increasingly popular care alternative for elderly patients to receive acute treatment in a place they feel comfortable and familiar with.

“Hospital at Home gives greater independence during their recovery process. Evidence shows that those benefitting from the service are more likely to avoid hospital or care home stays for up to six months after an acute illness.

“It is also one of a range of measures that we have put in place to tackle delayed discharge numbers and free up beds within our hospitals.”

The Scottish government says that service is now the eighth biggest “hospital” for older people emergency inpatients, ranking alongside Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Stirling.

Belinda Robertson, associate director of improvement at HIS, said: “This announcement of additional funding will continue to improve access to Hospital at Home services and make them more sustainable to the benefit of patients across Scotland.

“It’s heartening to see that Hospital at Home services prevented over 14,400 people spending time in hospital over the past year”.

In May 2024, NHS England announced an ambition to increase access to virtual wards which included plans for a virtual wards operational framework, to be produced in the early part of 2024.

An NHSE commissioned evaluation of the effectiveness of virtual wards, published in May 2024, found that black and ethnic minority people are underrepresented in patient cohorts.