A PROJECT designed to improve the care of the elderly in parts of Hertfordshire has reduced hospital admissions by more than 10 per cent.

It has also reduced the length of time patients have to stay in hospital and cut the amount of medicines they take unnecessarily.

Project Vanguard was set up by the County County, the East and North Herts CCG and the county’s care homes in March 2015, amid fears that too many patients over-65 were being take to Accident and Emergency.

At its heart is better training for care home staff in East and North Hertfordshire, an Early Intervention Vehicle – that attends to ‘triaged’ 999 calls – and specialist hospital-based staff to plan for discharge.

And on Monday (September 3) members of the County Council’s Adult Care and Health Cabinet Panel will scrutinise its success.

According to the evaluation report – which will be presented to the committee – the Vanguard programme led to an 11.5 per cent reduction in hospital admissions for the over-65s.

And the use of an Early Intervention Vehicle (EIV) – staffed by emergency care and social care staff – led to fewer patients being taken to hospital at all.

The EIV crews responded to triaged calls at the request of ‘999’ operators.

As well as dealing with immediate health needs they undertake a 90-minute health and social care assessment, to understand whether it is safe for the older person to remain at home – often supplying necessary equipment or referring on to an alternative service.

And of the 2271 callouts since its launch, the report shows just 28 per cent of people being have needed to be treated in hospital.

According to the report, during Project Vanguard patients over-65 who did need to be admitted to hospital spent 4.9 per cent fewer days there.

And the report puts 670 of those reduced hospital bed days down to the work of the specialist ‘Impartial Assessor Service’ – which works to remove barriers to discharge, or so-called ‘bed blocking’ – saving an estimated £251,750.

Meanwhile staff in care homes have been trained as ‘champions’, in recognition of residents’ often complex health needs – improving their own competence and improving relationships with GPs and other healthcare professionals.

And pharmacists have also worked alongside 50 care homes to review the medication being taken by residents – stopping medications that were no longer appropriate and recommending other treatments, such as bone protection.

As a result 16 per cent of medicines were stopped – reducing medicine costs by £392,649 which is the equivalent of £210 per patient.

And now that service is looking at malnutrition in a bid to ensure care home residents receive calorie intake from food provided, with a reduced reliance on ‘oral nutritional support’.

Of the 368 patients already reviewed, 65 per cent have stopped taking oral nutritional support, four per cent have reduced and 17 per cent switched  – reducing the cost by £128,393.

East and North Hertfordshire was one of six Vanguard pilots across the country, funded by NHS England as part of the New Models of Care programme.

The report estimates that it has saved £13, 381,509 in North and East Hertfordshire.