Growth of Hospital at Home across Scotland
Hospital at Home provides short-term hospital level care in a person's own home. It provides person-centred care while reducing pressure on hospitals. We have been working with Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) and NHS boards to expand Hospital at Home across Scotland.
We work with HSCPs and NHS boards to expand existing services or to develop new services. Between April and December 2023, Hospital at Home (H@H) services have prevented over 10,000 people in Scotland from spending time in hospital. Comparing December 2022 to December 2023 there was a 51% increase in patients managed by H@H services (1,070 people in 2022 compared with 1,619 people in 2023).
Patients and their families continue to experience the benefit of being treated at home rather than in hospital:
“They always gave me the impression they were completely focused on me and were not the least but hurried. I think everyone should know how wonderful this service is.” (H@H patient in NHS Forth Valley)
Older people/acute adult H@H services have expanded to 455 equivalent beds. This is similar in size to University Hospital Wishaw and larger than Raigmore Hospital.
You can read more about the progress of Hospital of Home services in our progress update.