Urgent Community Response Teams Helping Keep People Out of Hospital This Winter

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin’s 2-Hour Urgent Community Response (UCR) service is working hard this winter to help people stay safe and independent at home – and avoid unnecessary hospital visits.

New for this year, the service is open from 8am right through to midnight (last referral 11pm), seven days a week, 365 days a year. This extended availability means more people can get urgent help at home, even late in the evening, reducing pressure on busy emergency and hospital services.

The UCR team provides an urgent assessment within two hours for people in a health crisis who don’t need an ambulance or hospital admission. The multidisciplinary team are able to assess and treat urgent healthcare needs that require a two hour to meet a person’s health and social care needs in their own home.

Our highly skilled team includes advanced clinical practitioners, district nurses, physiotherapists, paramedics and pharmacy technicians. They can assess and treat urgent healthcare needs, provide lifting equipment if you’ve had a fall, and review your medication.

Sarah Robinson, Divisional Clinical Manager – Urgent and Emergency Care for Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust, said:
“Our UCR teams are having a real impact on patients, supporting them to stay in their own homes and avoid unnecessary or prolonged admissions to hospital. Patients receive speedy treatment in the comfort and safety of home and avoid a visit to a busy emergency department if they don’t need to be there. 

“By extending our hours, we can support more people and help relieve pressure on urgent and emergency care services.”

Typical conditions suitable for a two-hour urgent community response include, but are not limited to:

• Falls – including those where lifting equipment is needed
• Sudden infections – such as chest, urine or skin infections
• Flare-ups of long-term conditions – like COPD, diabetes or Parkinson’s
• Frailty or sudden decline in health
• Problems passing urine or urgent catheter care
• Minor wounds – for example, cuts that need closing
• Pain linked to a diagnosed condition
• Urgent end-of-life or palliative care support
• Support for people with COVID who are clinically stable
• Alternative to an ambulance – following discussion with a clinician

Referrals can be made by health and care professionals. Over 70% of people receive help within two hours.

Rachel Gallyot, Chief Medical Officer for the Integrated Care Board Cluster for NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-On-Trent: “The 2-hour UCR teams make a real difference - keeping residents of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin healthy, independent and out of hospital wherever possible. This in turn helps to reduce pressure on urgent and emergency care services and the wider health and care system by preventing avoidable admissions to hospital and emergency department attendances.”

Last winter alone, hundreds of patients were referred into the 2-hour UCR service potentially saving a huge number of ambulance conveyances and hospital bed days in avoided admissions.

You can learn more about the service on the ICB website: Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Urgent (2 hour) Community Response - NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin