Leading care provider working to eliminate NHS pressures

Following Rishi Sunak’s pledge to axe NHS wait times, a leading UK care provider is committing to a million home visits this month.

Announced today, Cera, Europe’s largest provider of digital-first home healthcare, has committed to deliver over one million visits in January, which equates to more than 20,000 patients per day.  

In the government’s priorities announcement this week, the Prime Minister drew upon issues the NHS are facing, with a particular focus on patients fit to be discharged from hospital but unable to leave due to a lack of at home care. Mr Sunak expressed the importance of telemedicine and helping patients access better data to inform decisions.

In aid of this, Cera is already known to be the equivalent in capacity to 50 NHS hospitals, as the organisation works with numerous NHS Integrated Care Systems and local authorities nationwide to deliver care, nursing, telehealth and repeat prescriptions.

Previous research conducted by Cera found a patients symptoms and health data that is collected by the company’s app can anticipate up to 80% of hospitalisations seven days in advance. Additionally, it has been proven to reduce hospitalisation rates by 52%, keeping more beds free across the NHS.

As well as helping to reduce hospital admissions, Cera launched a rapid discharge service in December 2022 which, based on data taken from Rotherham in November 2022, displayed the service enabled 80% of patients to be discharged from hospital on the same day as admission and get seen by Cera carer or nurse.

Dr Ben Maruthappu MBE, CEO and Co-founder of Cera, said: ‘In Wednesday’s announcement, the Prime Minister outlined the NHS’s wait times and the need to discharge people out of hospitals and into social care as one of the nation’s biggest priorities.

‘Healthcare services are now required to do more with less, with demands increasing alongside an ageing population that requires more complex care, battling lengthy waiting lists across hospitals, and sector-wide struggles with staff burnout.

‘Through its technology-powered model, I am proud to announce that Cera will be in a position to provide over a million care visits this month, to help more patients leave hospital and relieve pressure on the NHS.

‘Moving healthcare services from the hospital to the home reduces the cost of healthcare ten-fold – the cost-effective solution the country needs.’

Photo by Hush Naidoo Jade Photography