Successes and learnings from Enhanced Community Care (ECC) programmes in the South East

Acute and Community colleagues from across the South East came together last Tuesday (16th) to discuss the successes and learnings from various Enhanced Community Care (ECC) programmes in the region.
Held in the RCSI Building in University Hospital Waterford, attendees heard multiple presentations including:
· Integrated Cardiology Service for Wexford.
· New clinical simulation suite in Waterford.
· Integrated diabetic services in Carlow and Kilkenny.
Speaking at the event Eithne Mullen, Director of Strategy, Transformation & Improvement at the Ireland East Hospital Group, said, “The event today acts as a great reminder on why ECC is so important. ECC’s ultimate goal is to treat people closer to home, helping them avoid long waits in busy EDs and alleviate pressure on our hospitals. We can see from the presentations today that this is already happening across the South East.”
There was also a poster presentation on the day. The posters allowed the services to illustrate what improvements have been made to the areas they work in and how this has help keep people out of hospitals.
The HSE’s Enhanced Community Care programme is increasing community healthcare services and reducing the pressure on hospital services.
This means more services are now closer to where people live, especially for older people and people living with chronic disease
According to Anna Marie Lanigan A/Chief Officer South East Community Healthcare,” With our aging population and increasing chronic conditions, integrated care delivered closer to home becomes pivotal. This event demonstrated the Enhanced Community Care programme in operation across the South East - enabling new ways of working, empowering our local staff and leadership to meet the needs of local communities and shift the focus away from acute hospitals. We can see the positive benefits of the programme including improved health outcomes for patients and reduced waiting times, hospital admissions and readmission rates.”
The ECC programme helps health and social care services to:
· manage care at a local level
· prevent avoidable referrals and admissions to acute hospitals, where safe and appropriate to do so
· support the transition from hospitals to the community
The ECC programme is a €240 million investment in community health services. It is part of the Sláintecare programme.