Chief executive of Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust Karen Howell writes for the Globe...

YOU can’t have escaped all the national media coverage about the pressures the NHS is facing.

We’ve got the same challenges here in Wirral as elsewhere in the country; a significant increase in the number of people needing treatment and care.

On New Year’s Eve our walk-in-centres had 44% more people attending compared to last year.

Arrowe Park Hospital has also been experiencing unprecedented demand in A&E and a 13% increase in ambulance arrivals. The whole healthcare system across Wirral and Cheshire is working hard to meet the challenges that face us.

To try to overcome some of these, we are working closely with Wirral Council, Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group and Wirral University Teaching Hospital to find innovative and new ways of working and mobilising our staff to meet the needs of local people.

Over the next few months we’re launching a pilot project to provide healthcare advice to care homes.

Our senior nurses will support 10 care homes, helping to manage any health concerns they have about their residents.

If one of these pilot care homes is concerned about a resident, they will be able to ring a Senior nurse at any time of day or night.

The nurses will be able to see the patient on an ipad, and carry out a rapid assessment to determine what action is required.

Most care home residents are frail older people and evidence shows many are admitted to hospital when they become ill, even though it’s often not the most appropriate place for them.

Being admitted can sometimes have a severe impact on people both physically and mentally and for some they don’t regain the level of function they had prior to admission.

So it’s vital that they are only admitted to hospital when there are no other alternatives.

As well as providing better care and better health for patients, the new service will help provide better value for the NHS too.

Some of the pressure Arrowe Park is facing is because people aren’t sure where to go for the right advice and support and so resort to going to A&E or dialling 999.

This can be the case for care homes too.

But the new service will support un-well patients within their care home rather than facing the frightening and disruptive prospect of ambulances and hospital departments.

Similar projects are already running very successfully in other areas. Sefton and West Yorkshire report many cases where telehealth nurses have helped avoid 999 calls and unnecessary hospital admissions.

We are always looking for new and innovative ways to let people know what NHS services are available.

If you have any ideas on how we can do this, please contact our communications team at wcnt.communications@nhs.net

We hope our new pilot service will have similar success, providing direct support to care home staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week.