Llanidloes Day Hospital

1. Llanidloes Day Hospital Penrallt unit provides 10 places per day, 4 days a week for the elderly and rehabilitation client. Patients are referred from the local catchment area with a population of 8,700 Patients are accepted by open verbal or written referral The work of the Day hospital helps to reduce the need for inpatient admission, facilitate early intervention for diagnosis and treatment and enable earlier discharge.

2. Our admission policy The patient is notified 7 days in advance of their first attendance. Assessment by the appropriate members of the multidisciplinary team is completed by the 3rd visit. An individual care plan is drawn up, stating treatment and review/discharge date. The patient and carer are involved in the planning, frequency and duration of attendance and updated regularly.

3. Process map of referrals

4. Issues raised All colleagues agreed that there was scope to improve the referral process through E-mail or I.T.links. Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN 2004) state that high quality referral letters are an essential part of good clinical care. This could take the form of letter, E-mail or Fax. All colleagues felt happy with the time in which it took for the client to attend further to referral,at present there is no waiting list.

5. Patient involvement All care should be centered around the patient/client,with the key requirement being patient focused bookings.(NHS Wales 2003) Some colleagues suggested a patient self referral system .The Modernisation Agency (2004) recommend developing referral systems to ensure rapid and speedy responses to patient referrals.

6. Good Practice All views and concerns should be incorporated, the emphasis being on improving patient/client satisfaction (NHS Wales 2003). To monitor this the Penrallt unit ensures each patient receives a post -discharge satisfaction questionnaire. Follow-up phone call 1 month post-discharge

7. Patient referrals to Day hospital 2003-2004 The figures are over a twelve month period General Practitioner 11 Social Services 2 Dietician 1 Hospital Wards 29 Physiotherapy 3 Occupational Therapy 2 District Nurses 5