In and out of hospital 7 > Frail patients whose transfer back to collect prescriptions and take people home the community has been delayed who need a little bit of support but do not should be encouraged and assisted to need to be in hospital. get dressed and walk around every day Outside hospitals, we carry out home they are in hospital so that their condition assessments. We check simple things like does not deteriorate.5 whether there are falls hazards, whether the Between home and hospital heating is on, if there's food in the fridge, with the British Red Cross whether the person has existing support networks or mobility needs and much more. The British Red Cross has been working We might help somebody for a few days or between home and hospital since before the a few months. NHS was established. Today our health and “ We try and get in [to the home] as soon as we social care services help over 200,000 people can because we don’t know what we’re going across the country continue to live safely to find when we get there.” and independently. Red Cross volunteer Across the UK, we help: Sometimes our services help people avoid hospital in the first place. We work in > 80,000 people to live independently multidisciplinary teams in some parts of the at home country, helping people with complex needs • 30,000 people through our avoid hospital. Some of our services have been A&E discharge support focussed on helping people who frequently • 50,000 people get attend hospital to seek the help they need to Home from Hospital live safely in their communities. One partnership with a mental health trust, for example, has > 125,000 through a combination of successfully reduced pressures on the system support including transport to and while helping people, some of whom had lost from hospital all hope, go on to live fulfilling lives. > 90,000 people with short-term access Indeed, so much of our work is about to mobility aids such as wheelchairs. spending time building relationships with the people using our services. We might learn, Our services have a simple idea at their heart: for example, that somebody won’t leave their preventing health problems from escalating house because they are afraid of falling. In into personal crises. At their best, they this case, something as simple as a ramp enable people to regain their confidence could make all the difference. Sometimes it’s a and independence. wheelchair, or help managing finances so that the heating is not cut off. It is this position, working within both the Again and again we find that by taking the time community and hospitals, which gives us a to get to know people, we learn just how big unique insight into where people are falling small interventions can be. So often, they prove through the gaps. the difference between living independently at Much of our operational work is focused on home and being admitted to a care home getting people home safely from both A&Es or hospital. and hospital wards. We work in hospitals across the country, providing the practical and emotional support others might not have time for. We might sit with disorientated patients, 5 Older people are estimated to lose 5 per cent of muscle strength per day in hospital, ultimately reducing their ability to live independently at home once discharged. National Audit Office Discharging older patients from hospital (May 2016).