HEALTH chiefs are looking to ease pressure on hospitals by reducing the reliance on unscheduled care in Renfrewshire.
The health and social care integration joint board (IJB) has revealed targets in emergency admissions, unplanned bed days, A&E attendance and care at home for 2019/20.
Unscheduled care is the unplanned treatment and care of a patient, usually because of an emergency or urgent event.
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Experts have seen a year on year downturn in the number of emergency admissions for those aged 65 and over during the past four years.
The last reported full year figure was 19,681 in 2017/18 – a drop from 22,448 in 2016/17 and 22,652 in 2015/16.
In the first six months of 2018/19, the number stood at 9,087.
A target of 19,302 has been set for the coming financial year.
The number of unscheduled hospital bed days took a spike in 2017/18 – increasing from 128,961 to 130,304.
From April to September 20018, the figure was 63,784 – meaning a target of 126,477 days was set for 2019/20.
Despite A&E attendance growing across Scotland over the past three years, the IJB has set a “challenging target” of 56,119 for the coming year.
The figure for the first eight months of 2018/19 has already exceeded 40,000.
However, a report presented at Friday’s board said: “We are optimistic that our campaign to support people to use the right service, and our focus on reducing frequent attenders at A&E, will help us achieve this target.”
During the last four years 87.6 per cent of people have spent the last six months of their live in a community setting. A target of 87.4 per cent has been set for 2019/20.
Figures also report a gradual increase in those aged 75 and over living at home unsupported from 81.4 per cent in 2015/16 to 82.6 per cent in 2017/18.
The number of elderly people supported at home has slightly fallen from 9.5 per cent in 2015/16 to 8.6 per cent in 2017/18.
The percentage of people in a care home has decreased from 9.5 in 2015/16 to 6.9 per cent in 2017/18.
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The IJB is working with care homes to reduce avoidable admissions to hospital by targeting those who have higher rates.
A ‘red bag’ initiative is also set to be rolled out in all nursing homes, which contains important information about a resident’s health so they can receive quick and effective treatment by ambulance and hospital staff.
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