This article has been written and funded by Ipsen

The future of healthcare is closer than we think

Empowering patients to take control of their health and well-being is crucial for the survival of health services in the future.

Studies show that when patients are more ‘activated’ – meaning they possess the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their own care – they not only experience better health outcomes but also have fewer admissions to NHS care settings.

Having more activated patients will also help to work towards the NHS Long Term Plan for boosted out-of-hospital care and alleviating pressure on hospitals.
At Ipsen, our homecare training programme helps to empower patients to self-manage their injection administration. The programme, which involves nurses visiting patients’ homes to teach either the patients themselves, or a partner, family member, or carer, how to self-administer their medication, has proven highly successful.

“What’s become clear from our one-to-one training programme is that confidence can be gained quite rapidly. It’s been encouraging to see how few nurse visits have been required for an individual to learn the skills they need to become fully equipped to manage their treatment at home,” explained Kate Higgs, Medical Manager at Ipsen Oncology.

We are continuously looking at ways in which we can improve our Ipsen homecare services and are delighted to have recently launched a digital platform to facilitate greater oversight of patient care for NHS teams.

Through the online portal, nurses can easily access information about their patients including their training status and whether it’s the patient or someone else administering the treatment. This allows for the seamless delivery of ongoing training and support for patients so they can independently administer their medication at home.

Training support is tailored for each patient, to ensure they feel confident to manage their injections on their own on a long-term basis, freeing up NHS clinic capacity.  Nurses can access the portal via laptop or mobile so they can obtain the information they need, on the go, and the portal can provide a snapshot of the patients within the Trust currently being trained, at any given time.

“A number of our patients or their family members have been trained to self-administer treatment at home and it really has transformed the service we can offer.  Patients don’t have to travel for treatment, and they feel empowered knowing they can get the medication they need in the comfort of their own home,” reflects Elizabeth Quaglia, Lead Nurse – Neuroendocrine Tumours at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

She concluded: “We are contacted by the homecare nurses if there are any concerns, meaning that I don’t need to worry about the treatment. The homecare team are extremely responsive which is very helpful if we need additional support and avoids unnecessary treatment delays. It is reassuring that patients can continue with home care injections if they are unable to self-administer.”

We are pleased to continue to evolve our homecare services including the launch of the digital service platform, which has enabled care providers to help many more patients with cancer and rare conditions to reduce the number of trips to hospital for treatment.

Siew Kwan Chang is Business Unit Head at Ipsen Oncology.
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