Hospital focus on patients’ carers
Hospital focuses on the needs of its patients but what about the carers who look after them?
A new initiative at Northwick Park is helping identify these individuals and signpost them to appropriate support services.
The one-year pilot is being managed by Harrow Carers.
Simon Joshua, who was a full-time carer for more than a decade, is leading the project.
Simon said: “I gave up my job to look after mum and dad, lost touch with friends and rarely went out. It can be a very lonely experience and a lot of long-term carers struggle with health-related problems.
"Simon didn’t want all his lived experien|ce to go to waste and is looking at how staff can identify carers and signpost them to appropriate support services.
Simon added: “I’ve got so much knowledge as a carer now, that I want to share that and ensure they are better supported and know where to go for help.
“My mother was a midwife at Northwick Park and my partner is a nurse so I am quite familiar with the hospital, but the whole process of supporting a patient can still be confusing.
“There is often a lack of communication which only adds to the confusion. The NHS is hugely reliant on carers because without them the health service wouldn’t be able to cope.
“There needs to be more recognition of this and better support given how much longer we are all living.”
There are more than ten million carers in the UK who collectively save the economy £445m a day. This includes children and Harrow Carers has a team dedicated supporting the 100s of young people in Harrow.
Simon added: “The majority of people wouldn’t describe themselves as unpaid carers saying they are just a husband, wife, son or daughter but they are, and the strain of looking after someone 24/7 is cumulative.”
Simon works alongside hospital staff to see if more carers’ details can be captured saying carers have an intimate knowledge of the patients being treated and better interaction with them could reduce the number of readmissions.
He identifies up to five new carers a day when visiting hospital wards and would like to see the trust’s Electronic Patient Record have a tick box to identify if a patient has a carer along with their contact details.
Simon added: “The goal is to identify ways in which the hospital can support carers but also benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience that they have about patients."