Treating patients in the home could save the NHS £1.7 billion

Bupa calls for home healthcare to be a standard offer for all patients in NHS care

The NHS could save up to £1.7 billion a year if hospitals and Primary Care Trusts treated more patients in the home, according to a new report published by Bupa today.

In the report,Taking the Pressure Off, analysis shows that up to 1.3 million patients staying in hospitals for conditions such as knee and hip replacements or infections could be discharged from hospital sooner and get their treatment in the home. In total, Bupa predicts the NHS could save over 14.5 million bed days a year, which could significantly help ease capacity pressures and reduce waiting lists.

Dr Mehmood Syed, Medical Director, Bupa Home Healthcare, said:

 As hospitals look to meet tough efficiency targets, today's report shows the enormous savings that can be made by reducing the amount of time people spend in hospital each year. These savings are made possible by the avoidance of overheads and accomodation costs, which are incurred when maintaining patients unnecessarily in hospital beds. Home healthcare in a win-win - the NHS can save money as they are able to get on with their lives. No-one wants to stay in hospital longer than is necessary. We're calling for home healthcare to be a standard offer for all patients in NHS care 

The biggest savings (up to £1.3 billion) could be made if patients were discharged from hospital sooner after an operation. An additional £390 million could be saved if there were effective after care packages in place which would result in people not being re-admitted to hospital with additional complications such as infections. For elderly patients in particular, the analysis has shown that home healthcare could make a significant impact on reducing the cost of readmissions, but also most importantly improving the experience for vulnerable patients.

Bupa Home Healthcare looks after 17 patients for NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly. The patients are children with long term ventilation, either invasive or non-invasive therapy, children with life limiting conditions in palliative end of life phase and children with challenging behaviour. The 10 year partnership has saved the Primary Care Trust £1.8 million a year. 

Leah Parker, Associate Director Women and Children's Commissioning, NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, said:

"Other than the financial aspects, patient care is the main benefit for us. Home healthcare enables the child to remain in their community; living with their family and going to school, so you certainly get better outcomes than a child lying in an acute hospital bed."

After a knee operation, Bupa Home Healthcare patient Barry Palmer, 63 years old, received three months of antibiotic treatment in the home. He said:

"The drugs made me feel tired and so it was great that I was at home where I could rest in peace and quiet. I'd also had enough of being stuck in hospital with people who were very unwell - I found it quite depressing seeing other people suffer."

Rt Hon Lord Warner, former Labour Health Minister, said:

"The levels of hospitalisation we see, both in terms of length of stay and readmissions, drain resources from our already stretched health and social care systems.  Solutions, like home healthcare, which offer both patient and financial benefit should be grasped by clinicians with both hands.

"An ageing population will put ever greater pressure on the NHS, particularly during the winter months. Innovative solutions like greater use of home healthcare can ease bed blocking, make stretched resources go further and, most importantly, give patients the care they want where they want it."

To view the full report, click here.

Ends

Available for interview

• Dr Mehmood Syed, Medical Director, Bupa Home Healthcare

Case studies

Barry Palmer, 63

Barry would have spent three months in hospital if home healthcare wasn't available to him. In March 2010, he had a knee replacement operation which became infected two weeks later which became the start of 18 months of hospital treatment.  He was able to have antibiotic treatment in the home. He says of his treatment: "The drugs made me feel tired and so it was great that I was at home where I could rest in peace and quiet. I'd also had enough of being stuck in hospital with people who were very unwell - I found it quite depressing seeing other people suffer."

NHS Cornwall, Bupa Home Healthcare providing care for children with complex care requirements

Bupa Home Healthcare looks after 17 patients for the PCT. They include children with long term ventilation, either invasive or non-invasive therapy, children with life limiting conditions in palliative end of life phase and children with challenging behaviour. The partnership has allowed the PCT to make annual savings of £1.8 million. Bupa Home Healthcare and NHS Cornwall have worked together for 10 years.

Breakdown of figures

Savings from early discharge (broken down by condition and bed days saved):

Savings from reducing readmissions:

Useful information and statistics

The average cost of an excess bed day is £255 (Department of Health, 2009-10 reference costs publication, p.8) www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_123501.pdf

Contact Us

Notes to editors

For more information, please contact: James Thompson, Bupa Press Office, on 020 7656 2454

About Bupa Home Healthcare

• Bupa Home Healthcare provides specialist care to patients in their own home
• We provide home healthcare services to over 15,000 patients
• We employ approximately 400 nurses and healthcare support workers
• Services include delivery of medication to patients homes and home nursing support across a range of therapies
• Our nurses care for people throughout the UK and work with more than 200 NHS Trusts

About Bupa

Bupa's purpose is to help people lead longer, healthier, happier lives. 

A leading international healthcare group, we offer personal and company health insurance, run care homes for older people and hospitals, and provide workplace health services, health assessments and chronic disease management services, including health coaching, and home healthcare. 

With no shareholders, we invest our profits to provide more and better healthcare.  We are committed to making quality, patient-centred, affordable healthcare more accessible in the areas of wellness, chronic disease management and ageing.

Employing nearly 52,000 people, Bupa has operations around the world, principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, New Zealand and the USA, as well as Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, India, China and across Latin America.