Reducing long stays: Empowering patients

The national ‘When am I going home?’ campaign from NHS England and NHS Improvement aims to reduce the length of time long-stay patients spend in hospital. By long we mean people who have been in hospital for three weeks or more.

Evidence shows it’s much better for a patient’s physical and mental wellbeing to leave hospital as soon as they are medically optimised for discharge. However, nearly 350,000 patients spend three weeks or more in acute hospitals each year.

This campaign is aimed at long-stay, older patients and their family or carers, and aims to encourage – and give them permission – to ask their healthcare team about plans for their recovery.

It follows on from the first phase of the campaign, which encouraged staff to take action.

Our campaign relies on the support of NHS Trusts. By working together, we can ensure we reach our audience. So, we’ve created a range of resources to make it as easy as possible for you to help spread the word to your patients, and their families and carers. You may already have your own materials, but these can be used to refresh them if you haven’t shared anything new for a while. Or to top up something you’re currently missing.

The resources include:

• Leaflets, including large print, easy read, and a carer-focused version;
• Four posters;
• A trayliner;
• Badges;
• Social media posts for Twitter and Facebook; and a
• Toolkit which outlines all the materials available, as well as short and long copy.

If you would like any further information, please contact Emma Staton: e.staton@nhs.net