Community team helping patients manage heart health from home mark milestone anniversary

An award-winning health team known for its care helping patients recover from heart failure in their own homes is marking a milestone anniversary.

Since its launch 20 years ago, the heart failure service at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has become known for being leaders in its field.

The service has made significant advances, most recently leading the way in setting up ways for patients to manage their condition from home.

Last year the service was successful in a funding bid to NHS England to be an early adopter of a new way of working, Managing Heart Failure at Home.

Patients use digital technology to monitor their condition, meaning patients and their loved ones can be given more timely and effective treatment.

And this year the service was successful in further funding to carry on this way of working.

Working with NHS-owned digital health company HealthCall Solutions, the team were recognised earlier this year as a HealthTech Digital Award winner.

Heart failure specialist nurses Trudy Hunt and Karen Hann developed the service 20 years ago.

Helping people control their own health

Trudy said: “We are so proud of the achievements made over the last 20 years – the team have helped improve the care of those patients diagnosed with heart failure.

“This new technology has helped patients take control of their health from home.

“We now know exactly how a patient is feeling and can assess certain clinical observations as frequently as needed.

“As a result we can reduce the need for them to be in hospital and avoid the difficulties many people have coming for a hospital or community appointment.

“Patients now have more confidence in managing their own condition, with support from one of the team’s nurses.

“It has helped us to reduce hospital stays and the number of home visits a patient may have previously needed.

Benefits have included being able to rapidly find the right doses of medication, allow patients to leave hospital quickly and improving patient outcomes.

Patients can download a special App on their phone or use a handheld device issued by the team.

These both have easy-to-use dashboards to record information about their heart including blood pressure, heartrate, oxygen levels and weight.

Trudy added: “Thanks to the teams’ efforts, patients are benefitting from better outcomes and an improved quality of life. We have worked collaboratively with the single point of access service, the triage team and home first team to ensure the success of this initiative.

“The heart failure service is always striving for new ways of working to improve patient care, continually gathering patient feedback to improve the process. All care is personalised to meet the needs of our patients.

“We are now acting as mentors to other health trusts to help them make the same improvements for their patients.”

Working together to improve patient care

Claire Graham, business development director at HealthCall, said: “Our collaboration with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has delivered clear, tangible benefits for many patients, especially those with heart failure.

“It has been a pleasure to observe how the NHS Health Calls digital VirtualCare solution has enhanced patient care, allowed comfortable home monitoring and led to fewer hospital admissions, home visits, and in-person appointments.

“We remain dedicated to supporting the team with digital solutions that empower them to continue delivering the highest level of care to their patients.”

The team’s work has been highlighted at the British Society of Heart Failure annual conference and recognised with an award, as well as showcased in the European Society Cardiology Journal.

The team are also actively involved in research studies to help develop new treatments for patients.