NHS England are about to run an awareness campaign promoting “Urgent Community Response Teams” also known as Rapid Response – a service for adults (over the age of 18) experiencing a crisis which might result in an unplanned hospital admission without a two-hour crisis response. The teams are a mix of advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs), specialist nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, paramedic practitioners, and therapy assistants (TA) or carers.
The service is currently available to NHS 111, general practice and care homes from 8am-8pm, seven days a week. The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness amongst referring teams to help prevent hospital admissions and facilitation of early discharge for end-of-life patients (EOL) working alongside district nurses.