Intermediate Care

What is Intermediate Care?

Intermediate care is a term used to describe a range of health and social care services available to adults 18 years old and over.

These services are designed to:

• Prevent inappropriate hospital admissions.
• Promote faster recovery from illness or injury.
• Avoid inappropriate admission to a long term care home.
• Facilitate timely hospital discharge.
• Promote independence, health and well being.
• Provide care at, or close to home.

How can intermediate care help?

• Based on a comprehensive assessment, it delivers a structured individualised care plan that involves active therapy, treatment or opportunity for recovery;
• It aims to maximise independence and typically enables service users to resume living at home;
• It is time limited, normally no longer than 6 weeks and frequently as little as 1 - 2 weeks or less;
• To identify and target people who would otherwise face unnecessary prolonged hospital stays or inappropriate admission to acute inpatient care, long term residential care or continuing NHS inpatient care;
• Involves cross-professional working, with a single assessment framework, single professional records and shared protocols.

Adults referred to intermediate care require a multi-disciplinary, comprehensive assessment and be in need of the services of more than one discipline i.e. nursing, social work, occupational therapy, home care & support, community matron, and physiotherapy.

Intermediate care is not a substitute for services provided by any one particular discipline e.g. district nursing or physiotherapy only.

Service Information

Where is the service provided from?

There are currently 5 intermediate care teams based in the following localities

When is the service provided?

The service is delivered 7 days a week.
Either in the clients own home (approx. 7am to 11pm for Durham and for Darlington 8am - 8pm ) or in a designated intermediate care unit where they have access to carer support 24/7.

How do people access the service?

The service is accessible 24 hours a day 7 days a week, referrals are received from:

a) Hospital wards, admissions units and accident and emergency departments - to enable patients to be discharged;
b) From community services such as district nurses, GPs, community matrons or mobile warden services.