This year we have relaunched our Help Us Help You campaign to once again help with easing pressure on hospital A&E departments and demand for inpatient beds this winter.
We will continue to push key messages that highlight the different services available and direct people to our dedicated Help Us Help You page, which hosts a wide range of resources. This includes animations on loneliness, urgent mental health services and accessing our Urgent Treatment Centres and Walk-in Centres.
We also have a number of self help guides and apps that cover issues such as alcohol awareness, abuse and sleeping problems. The wide range of topics and resources available is there to help improve everyone’s physical and mental health. We have also included information and advice to help people during the cost of living crisis.
Over the winter months we will also be promoting important messages via Metro News and on Greatest Hits Radio, that cover topics such as how to access same day urgent care, urgent community response and advice on choosing the right health care service for your treatment needs.
The Winter Resilience Plan 2024/25 is designed to address the immediate resilience challenges of winter and the significant fragility of the Care Home market, with a clear focus on avoiding unnecessary patient attendances and admissions whilst recognising our vision to provide whole person care that enables people with physical health and mental health conditions, learning disabilities and addictions to live longer, healthier lives.
The key priorities for 2024/25 have been identified across the Trust and are categorised into the following five themes:
- Agility and Responsiveness.
- Avoiding Unnecessary Patient Attendances and Admissions
- Reducing Length of Stay and Improved Co-ordination of Care
- Improving Flow and Discharge
- Prevention and Protection and Staff Wellbeing.
The Mersey Care winter resilience plan for 2024-25 looks to increase its system impact by up to 10% compared to last year.
You can also view our Winter Planning and Delivery 2024/25 presentation by clicking this link.
Winter plan evaluation
Data up to the end of March 2024, highlighted the positive and significant impact of Mersey Care’s Winter Plan. Overall, across our service delivery, more than 57,000 potential bed days have been saved, 26% more than originally planned.
Particular areas that have contributed to this year’s impressive results, include increased numbers of 2-hour urgent community response referrals compared to the previous year, and community mental health teams working alongside urgent care colleagues to reduce pressures within A&E departments.
Despite decreases in referrals to COVID related services such as nMABS, there has been significant increases in the numbers of patients managed via respiratory and heart failure Virtual Wards.To put into context, the overall number of bed days saved is equivalent to 313 beds provided for within the community – 65 more than the original plan.
Once again, this year’s winter plan was supported by a successful communications and marketing campaign:
Cold weather can make some health problems worse and even lead to serious complications. This is why staff are thinking about what they can do to ensure patients and service users are able to keep warm this year.
Did you know that the Institute of Health Inequality forecasts that there are likely to be 13,545 additional deaths in England alone this winter, due to people living in cold homes?
What can I do?
There are five things that you can do to help:
1. Look out for patients living in cold homes below 18ºC: In appointments, on home visits and when discharging people from inpatient stays consider: is this person returning to a cold home? Do they have the means to heat their home?
2. Think about people who might be particularly vulnerable: including those with heart or lung conditions, the elderly, those living in fuel poverty or those who have problems communicating their needs to others.
3. Offer immediate advice: about how they can keep warm by: -
- Wearing layers, including thermal vests, or items made of wool or cotton
- Having regular hot drinks and trying to eat at least one hot meal a day
- Keeping moving
- Heating one room at a time and spending most time in there
- Closing curtains at dusk and keeping doors closed between rooms
- Blocking draughty areas such as window frames, keyholes and under doors
- Closing bedroom windows at night, switching from summer to winter duvets and using hot water bottles or electric blankets to keep warm in bed
- Finding out where their local ‘warm space’ is: https://warmspaces.org/
- If they are over 65, not very mobile or have a health condition try to support them to access the means to heat their home to over 18ºC
- Check whether they have received the Winter Fuel Payment or are entitled to a Cold Weather Payment from their local council (see details below)
4. Signpost to organisations
- Winter fuel payments: www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment 0800 731 0160
- Cold weather payments: www.gov.uk/cold-weather-payment
- Energy saving advice: Energy saving advice - Help for Households
- National Save Energy Advice Line: 0800 043 0151
5. Read more: about keeping warm and well in Winter
- British Heart Foundation’s advice for cost effective ways to keep the heat in.
- St Helens Winter Well Strategy:
- Warm_Home_and_Winter_Wellbeing_Guide.pdf (gosshosted.com)
Local resources:
St Helens Council's website and Warm Spaces
Emergency power cuts are unlikely this winter, however if they do occur, it’s expected that loss of power could be for up to three hours, and this may happen more than once depending on the situation. For further information see the leaflets below:
The NHS App gives you a simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services. Download the NHS App on your smartphone or tablet via the Google play or App store. You can also access the same services in a web browser by logging in through the NHS website.
You must be aged 13 or over to use the NHS App. You also need to be registered with a GP surgery in England or the Isle of Man. Find out more about who can use the NHS App.
Depending on your GP surgery or hospital, you may be able to use the NHS App to:
- Message your GP surgery or a health professional online
- Contact your GP surgery using an online form and get a reply
- Access health services on behalf of someone you care for
- View and manage your hospital and other healthcare appointments
- View useful links your doctor or health professional has shared with you
- View and manage care plans
- Estimate the waiting time for some hospital treatments
For more information including how to download the NHS App, visit the NHS website.
The Adverse Weather and Health Plan
The Adverse Weather and Health Plan has been developed in conjunction with the Met Office, NHS, Voluntary Sector, Fire Services and Local Authorities and aims to protect individuals and communities from the health effects of adverse weather and to build community resilience.
Useful websites