Dr Claire Steel (pictured) has gone from being an accidental convert to Hospital at Home to the head of the national organisation for the ground-breaking service.
Claire, a physician in older adults medicine working in Hospital at Home (H@H) at University Hospital Monklands, was delighted to be elected president of the UK Hospital at Home Society at its annual general meeting this month.
H@H provides hospital-level care at home for patients with severe conditions, who’d normally need an acute hospital bed.
Lanarkshire’s H@H service – run by the health board and the two university health and social care partnerships – was the first in Scotland and has been in place for over a decade. It currently has four multi-disciplinary teams, one each for our three acute hospitals and one serving the Clydesdale area, due to its rural nature.
The initiative provides care for people aged 65-and-over in the familiar surroundings of their own homes as an alternative to hospital admission.
Claire’s passion for the service began when she broke her wrist in a snowboarding accident and couldn’t work on a ward. She swapped to a role with H@H in the community – and loved it. The experience led her to take up a consultant post with NHS Lanarkshire, knowing we had a leading H@H service.
The focus of H@H in Lanarkshire is on supporting frailer, older adults with acute or complex conditions. By bringing hospital care into people’s homes, the aim is to improve outcomes and quality of life for patients while reducing unnecessary hospital admissions.
The multi-disciplinary care team is headed up by hospital consultants. They have daily virtual ward rounds and plans are made with staff to review the patient at home. Claire says travelling around the community to visit patients is one of the things she loves most about being a H@H doctor.
She explained: “It might seem like a lonely business driving from one patient to another, but it’s a day filled with discussions and conversations with other professionals, patients and family members. On home visits, another clinical member of staff will usually be there with me. The teamwork is great.”
Advanced nurse practitioners, allied health professionals and support staff also visit patients in their homes to deliver comprehensive assessments, treatments and care.
UK Hospital at Home Society past president Professor Daniel Lasserson said: “I’m very proud to hand over the presidency to Dr Claire Steel.
“Claire and I have worked together on the committee since founding the society in 2020 and I’m really looking forward to supporting her presidency and helping her realise her vision for how we can continue building high-quality H@H services.”
