Hospital at Home Programme – March 2025 update
Hospital at Home
The Hospital at Home (H@H) programme is a short-term, targeted intervention providing acute level hospital care in an individual’s own home or home setting.
This programme:
- has high satisfaction and patient preference across a range of measures
- reduces pressure on unscheduled acute care in hospitals by avoiding admissions and accelerating discharge
- has consistent evidence of lower costs compared to inpatient care
What we do
Optimise and expand H@H services:
Support NHS boards/HSCPs to optimise and expand their existing older people/acute adult H@H services.
Develop new H@H services:
Support remote and rural areas across Scotland to implement new older people/acute adult H@H services
National Learning System:
Enable older people/acute adult H@H services to share and learn from each other
National Infrastructure:
Develop national infrastructure to enable sustainable older people/acute H@H services
Results so far
10% increase in patients managed by hospital at home services
14,409 patients were managed by H@H services from April 2023 to March 2024
15,811 patients were managed by H@H services from April 2024 to March 2025
H@H services prevented almost 16,000 people spending time in hospital during April 2024 to March 2025, relieving pressure form A&E and the Scottish Ambulance Service
Delivering patient centred care
“This is a Realistic Medicine in practise and the follow up visits from the nursing team were equally supportive. I couldn’t speak more highly about our experience.”
Patient supported by Lanarkshire’s Hospital at Home service
“I would just like to say that the Hospital at Home service is tremendous with the health care that it provides without having to go into hospital, I would rate it 10 out of 10”
Patient supported by Falkirk’s Hospital at Home service
What we achieved
Working with 13 NHS boards across Scotland
We are working with services across 13 NHS boards to create new services, improve the resilience of existing services and evaluate new ways of working
Growing capacity to be bigger than Western General Hospital
In March 2025, there was the equivalent of 575 beds with an occupancy rate of 80%. This is similar to the size of Western General Hospital and larger than University Hospital Wishaw
Service updates
NHS Fife have implemented 7-day working in all three of their hubs for ANPs. This has enabled the team to access clinical advice and support between 8am-10am which has improved efficiency and confidence in managing complex patients
NHS Western Isles have expanded their H@H service to cover the island of Uist. This means an additional 20% of their population has access to acute level care at home
Spotlight on
National event
Along with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, representatives from across 15 H@H services came together to share experiences and contribute to the next steps of the national programme.
Funding for expansion
A funding process is underway for NHS boards/HSCPs to contribute to the First Minister’s ambition of reaching 2,000 H@H beds by December 2026
Sharing Learning
The next learning session for the H@H network will take place on Tuesday 10 June, 12-1pm.
The Point of Care Testing (POCT) guide is due to be published June 2025
Supporting service
“Feeling empowered to do new things and take on more challenges”
On 5 March 2025, we held a National Hospital at Home Event in Edinburgh.
This quote was in response to the question: “what was the most useful thing about the event?”
Information sources
- Rapid Response – Admission avoidance hospital at home for older people with frailty, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, February 2022
- Monthly improvement data each H@H services submits to Healthcare Improvement Scotland since March 2021.
- PHS Scotland, Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (annual), Year ending 31 March 2024.
- Care Opinion