Leading healthcare service has launched a new rapid discharge service

Cera Care have announced a new service that enables same-day discharge from hospitals to help ease mounting pressure on the NHS.

The current acute lack of social care has resulted in one in three English Hospital beds being occupied by a patient fit for discharge, according to research from The Guardian.

Patients taking up beds has resulted in the NHS facing a ‘bed-blocking’ emergency – costing the health service £5m each day. Additionally, NHS England have admitted that delayed discharges are 25% higher, which has resulted in 20,000 people per day waiting for at least four hours in A&E.

In response to this Cera, a digital-first healthcare-at-home company, have launched a rapid discharge service which allows for 80% of patients to be let out of hospital on the same day they are admitted.

As well as getting patients out of hospital quicker, the new service triggers health interventions early to prevent people from becoming unwell and needing to go into hospital.

The digital software has been proven to reduce hospitalisation rates by 52% and extend the timeframe for patients who are frequently admitted into hospital from 43 days to 90.

Founded in 2015, Cera’s award-winning technology digitises the matching of the right carer or nurse with a patient faster and drives efficiencies through electronic scheduling and task lists – reducing admin to spend more time delivering care.

Currently, Cera delivers over 50,000 care visits a day, which is the equivalent in capacity to 50 NHS hospitals.

Dr Ben Maruthappu MBE, Co-Found of Cera, said: ‘It is imperative that we begin to move healthcare out of hospitals and into the home, except for only the most critical services.

‘We need to start managing the majority of health services in the community or at home – the same shift that we have already observed in almost every other sector from banking to retail – reducing pressures on hospitals and cracking down on mounting waiting lists.

‘Through investment in new technology in 2023, we will be able to grow our ability to visit more patients faster through streamlined scheduling and allocation of carers.’

The new service is available in the Midlands, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Merseyside. However, there are discussions of a national rollout.

Like Cera, Oysta, a care tech provider dedicated to helping vulnerable people, have also begun trialling a new technology that is helping the NHS with their bed-blocking crisis. 

Photo by the National Cancer Institute