Response team play key role keeping vulnerable people safe at home
Each day across all corners of Northamptonshire, hundreds of adults need urgent clinical help to stay safe at home, perhaps after a fall or a sudden bout of ill health. One NHFT team is here to deliver that help, providing truly responsive care day and night.
The Urgent Community Response (UCR) team works to deliver rapid support for people in need of immediate clinical attention, giving them the right care in the community and helping them stay out of hospital, wherever possible. Where people do need a hospital admission, the team is on hand to support them to return home safely and speedily.
Made up of around 200 professionals, including doctors, nurses, therapists, rehabilitation specialists, healthcare assistants and administration support, the UCR team works countywide, 365 days a year from 8am to 1am. They receive more than 2,000 referrals every month from GPs, the ambulance service and NHS 111 - as well as patients, families and carers - and attend as many as 350-plus home visits in a single day.
The team aims to respond to the most clinically urgent call-outs within two hours, stepping in to support people at some of their most vulnerable moments and preventing potential crisis situations from getting worse.
Support ranges from initial nurse assessments and rapid blood tests to short-term monitoring where patients are safe to stay at home. Where needed, this can be followed up with home therapy visits and arrangements for special equipment to help with recovery.
Alongside the care and treatment provided to prevent hospital admission, the team helps around 350 people each month to be safely discharged back into the community after a hospital stay, offering therapy and care to regain their strength, balance and confidence. As well as benefiting the thousands of families directly supported by the team, the UCR's responsive care helps to ease pressure on hospital services more widely.
Abby Wainwright, Service Manager for Urgent Community Response at NHFT, said: "The UCR team consistently demonstrates compassion, agility, and absolute commitment to keeping people safe at home. Every day, they deliver a two-hour rapid response to adults across Northamptonshire, stepping in at moments when patients and their families are understandably anxious or uncertain. Their ability to respond quickly and calmly - not just clinically, but emotionally - has made a profound difference to countless people."