A PIONEERING project is improving the way patients are moved from north Essex hospitals to care homes and back again.

Communications problems in the past have prompted homes to complain hospitals had not told them when patients were being returned to them or what care they might need.

Equally, Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust has complained in the past it sometimes doesn’t get enough information about patients coming into hospital from homes.

The Better Transition Network has been set up by the trust and care home managers’ group, My Home Life Essex, to improve communications between the trust and the area’s 300 nursing and care homes.

Louise Notley, nurse consultant for older people, based at Colchester General Hospital, has been involved since the project started last year and thinks the initiative is the first of its kind in the country.

She said: “This project is essentially about improving communications between the different parts of the system, breaking down barriers between the different organisations and understanding each other’s pressures.

“In the past, when we discharged patients, we sometimes got complaints from homes, saying we hadn’t told them what we’d done to the patient, about their ongoing care needs, or even that we hadn’t informed them they were being discharged until the last minute.

“On the other hand, when patients were admitted from care homes, we sometimes weren’t given even basic information about their dietary and general care needs.”

The trust now gives patients a special form when they are discharged to a care home, giving details of their treatment and care needs.

In return, 17 care homes are using a form of their own, which residents take with them when they go to hospital.

Ms Notley said the network had led to fewer complaints by care homes about transfers to Colchester General and Essex County hospitals, while feedback from care homes had also been positive.