‘Secret’ NHS home treatment service helps thousands of people avoid hospital each year

Thousands of people in Kent are benefitting from an NHS hospital at home service, which is also saving 200 ambulance journeys each month.

In 2025, almost 600 people a month in east Kent were supported at home by the Urgent Care Service, provided by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT).

A trio of health professionals ready to help people at home

The service responds to calls from GPs, health professionals and South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAMB), to identify people needing urgent care or waiting for an ambulance, who may be more appropriately treated at home.

A third of patients are referred into the service from the SECAMB urgent clinical navigation hub, which monitors the live ambulance queue for patients who could potentially be treated at home.

Dr Shelagh O'Riordan

KCHFT Consultant Geriatrician Dr Shelagh O’ Riordan said: “Everyone sees the ambulance queues and overstretched hospitals on the news and assumes that’s all that is happening. But no one knows about this service, until they need us. We’re the best-kept secret in Kent.

“There are 40,000 people aged over 80 in east Kent, one of the highest percentages of elderly people per head of population in the whole of the southeast, but we actually have the lowest rate of admission to the emergency department for this cohort.”

The service is helping to keep people out of hospital. Since 2019-20, when the service was launched, the rate of hospital admission among people aged 80 and over in east Kent has fallen by 24 per cent, while the national rate for England has risen by two per cent.

Patients who are referred to the service are typically seen within two hours and receive a comprehensive assessment and diagnostics in their own home, before a clinical decision is made about whether hospital admission is necessary. Thanks to the rapid expansion of treatments that can now be safely delivered at home, many patients are able to avoid a prolonged stay in hospital.

One patient was Henry Kingman, from Herne Bay, who is 82 and has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure. Henry said: “One morning I was really struggling to breathe and I felt awful, there was a horrible tightness in my chest. I called the GP who said I needed to go to hospital and they called an emergency ambulance to take me. While I was waiting, I got a call from Dr O’Riordan, who explained they could see me at home instead.”

Within a few hours, Dr Jonathan McGarvey, a specialist doctor, had visited Henry at home, carried out several tests to rule out an infection and diagnosed Henry with fluid retention around his heart and lungs, which was stopping him from breathing normally.

Dr McGarvey said: “We’ve got a huge range of tests we can carry out in people’s homes now, which means we can rapidly work out what’s wrong with them and decide if they can be treated safely at home. In Henry’s case I was able to do some blood tests and had the results back in five minutes, which ruled out an infection. I was then able to do an ultrasound of his lungs which showed the build-up of fluid.”

Henry was given intravenous diuretics to help him to expel the excess fluid and oxygen to help with his breathing. The next morning, someone from the Urgent Care Service called Henry to check his progress to find him up and about.

Henry said: “I didn’t really want to go to hospital as I’d had a stay in there last year, so I was grateful to be seen and treated at home. I still get daily visits and calls but I’ve been able to get up and showered here.

“My wife takes my blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels every day and we phone the results through to the office, so they can keep an eye on me.”

Dr O’Riordan said: “Patients and carers often say they are ‘blown away’ by the range of treatments we can offer them at home. We are adding to the list all the time, so we can keep more and more people out of hospital.

“Patients often prefer to stay at home if they can and evidence shows they often recover faster in their own environment.

“We also have more than 300 residential care homes in east Kent and we work closely with our care colleagues to avoid hospital admissions for their residents too, if possible.

“Hospital stays can be distressing and debilitating for patients and they can rapidly deteriorate. They’re also at increased risk of infection.

"If we can keep people at home and give them hospital-level care, it’s better all round.”