The Care Co-ordination Centre (CCC) is a hub staffed by a range of clinicians, multi-disciplinary staff and social care that co-ordinate care across health, social care and voluntary sector providers, providing a single point of access for all community referrals. It supports urgent and emergency care, including transfer of care from hospital to home, hospital admission avoidance, as well as planned care.
The CCC proactively promotes the “Home First” and “No Wrong Door” ethos of care to ensure that holistic assessment and care is arranged for residents of West Essex.
The centre handles 1500 calls a week, connecting the referrers and residents to the right service first time. It has more than 90 staff working seven days a week, 8am to 9pm, covering physical and mental health.
An example of the care given is:
Mrs R who was living with lung cancer had severe back pain and rang the ambulance service. The paramedic rang the CCC and a senior clinician triaged their request and established that the patient had a care plan in place which included anticipatory medication. The multi-disciplinary team (MDT) discussion authorised the paramedic to give Mrs R the pain medication immediately and arranged for a community nurse to visit in the evening for a second dose. The patient was referred for bridging service to support her immediate care needs, discussed with St Clare Hospice (SCH) for additional palliative support and pain control along with GP input, in addition to continued follow up care with the community nursing team.
Feedback:
Mrs R was very happy with the ‘excellent collaborative’ approach taken by professionals to provide the care plan/treatment she wanted.