A community team who provide care previously only available in hospital are celebrating their 10th birthday this month.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Hospital at Home Team was set up in November 2010 to provide healthcare for people at home as an alternative to hospital admission and also to support earlier discharges from hospital for those who are well enough to return home.

Hospital at Home patients stay in their own homes but receive extra care and attention from the specialist team. The service is provided across Oxfordshire and, in the last five years alone, has helped 6,530 individual patients.

The team was joined today by Oxford Health CEO Dr Nick Broughton who visited for a specially socially-distanced celebration. He said: “It is fantastic to celebrate these really significant milestones as they represent a great deal of hard work by staff and some really good results for patients.

“I was pleased to join them today to celebrate the 10th birthday as, even in such difficult times, we need to show our appreciation for all the work done by NHS teams. The Hospital at Home service may not be as well known as some NHS services, but for the patients and families it helps it is truly marvellous.”

Patients can be referred to the service through a range of channels including district nurses, GPs and Oxfordshire hospitals.

The team assess the patient’s needs and plan healthcare with them and liaises with other health and social care professionals, family members or carers as well as providing extra support, monitoring and specialist care.