ABSTRACT
The current trend in healthcare is to develop a stronger community service, with the aim of improving and maintaining patients' health, thereby avoiding hospital admission, with potential cost savings. In 2005, the Department of Health overhauled the way the National Health Service manages patients with chronic conditions by recruiting 3000 community matrons to provide care closer to home. The advantages of avoiding hospital admissions are as follows: a reduction in the cost of healthcare, a reduction in the incidence of hospital-associated problems and the provision of care closer to home. This is a service that provides active management of the patient in his or her own home by a healthcare professional, when otherwise hospital admission would have been required. The supporting evidence for intermediate care is weak, and is limited to early discharge of patients from secondary care.
