Last updated 23 March 2020

In order to deliver the best possible patient care during the coronavirus outbreak, we will be reorganising aspects of our services. Please see the details below and for which services will be continuing, what changes will be made, and what will be suspended until further notice. Please also check back to this page in future for further updates.

Service contact details

Our services remain contactable and responsive. Please call our single point of contact (0333 405 3000) for the following services:

• · At Home First coordinators
• · Cancer and palliative care
• · Community matrons
• · District Nursing service
• · Falls service
• · Heart failure service
• · Parkinson’s service
• · Rapid response service
• · Respiratory service
• · Tissue viability service
• · Tuberculosis service

For the anti-coagulation service and DVT service (at the Luton Treatment Centre) please call 0333 405 0040. 

For the phlebotomy (blood taking) service, please call:

· 0333 405 0043 – for blood clinic appointments

· 0333 405 0047 – for blood test home visits

The GP Liaison/Integrated Discharge Team (based at Luton & Dunstable Hospital) remain contactable at 01582 497355/497142. 

Our social media channels will continue to deliver updates on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Changes by service

Our community nurses services (including district nurses and homeless health services) will deliver the following services, clinically prioritising urgent needs using dynamic case load management:

• support for people in the last days of life or for people needing high complexity palliative care – syringe drivers and symptom management and any other identified clinical need
• insulin administration
• prioritising rapid response teams response to patients who are rapidly deteriorating to facilitate
• admission avoidance
• prioritise early supported discharge from acute settings and community neuro-rehabilitation which can be supported by “non-registered’ staff with professional support
• tele-rehabilitation access will be supported and developed
• end of life/palliative care
• non molecular weight heparin injections
• medication prompts
• wound care where there are immediate concerns regarding the patient’s condition e.g. infected wounds, heavily exuding wounds and compression bandaging that has been in situ for more than 7 days
• bowel care where this is required on a regular basis
• services for patients at high risk of falls (including considering use of falls monitors and pendant alarms)
• services for patients where there is a newly identified moving and handling risk which could result in immediate risk to the patient or carer
• GP Liaison service
• Home oxygen services 

• Visits will be prioritised for:

  • complex wound management
  • diabetic foot care
  • urgent catheter care

Our specialist nurses for specific conditions (diabetes, heart failure, continence/ colostomy, tissue viability, TB, Parkinson’s, respiratory/ COPD, falls and lymphoedema) will stop routine QOF associated activities, and will:

• deliver services for those clinically prioritised as having urgent needs (and reduce regular review work)
• increase the use of telemedicine options wherever clinically safe to do so.
• delay routine reviews of respiratory long term conditions EXCEPT for people with known frequent exacerbation e.g asthma/COPD.
• deliver routine reviews of cardiovascular disease based long term conditions (diabetes/ischaemic heart disease/chronic kidney disease)

The following services will be suspended until further notice:

• Clinics and education courses delivered by community nursing teams
• Diabetes structured education
• Cardiac rehab
• Pulmonary rehab
• Wound clinics
• Dieticians clinic
• CVAD clinics
• Heard failure education
• Respiratory education

We will continue to deliver our specialist palliative care end of life service

We will also continue to deliver:

• Phlebotomy / anti-coagulation services (home visiting services linked to INR monitoring services to continue safe monitoring of patients on warfarin).
• Deep vein thrombosis service

We will continue to undertake adult safeguarding case management.

We will stop safeguarding adults review work.

We will continue to provide necessary clinical support to social care, care homes and domiciliary care.