Community Nursing & Category C patients

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Any of you Community Nurses out there initiated Cat C yet? We are just implementing it now and wondered if anyone wanted to discuss how you're doing with it?

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Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.
Any of you Community Nurses out there initiated Cat C yet? We are just implementing it now and wondered if anyone wanted to discuss how you're doing with it?

sorry, its no good i gotta ask...

what is cat c?

???

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sorry, its no good i gotta ask...

what is cat c?

???

It's to do with the Paramedic Service meeting their performance targets i.e. response times etc.....

Basically, when someone calls 999 they are triaged and categorised as category A, B or C........

Cat A is life-threatening and requiring immediate intervention

Cat B is urgent attention needed but not life-threatening

Cat C is patients who do not require an immediate or urgent response by "blue light" and may be suitable for alternative pathways of care.......

The plan is that Cat C patients will be referred to a Community Nurse for assessment and/or treatment. It could be something like a fall, an injury requiring suturing, or a patient with an exacerbation of a chronic condition. Our Senior Community Nurses are currently undertaking advanced clinical skills training to respond to this. As I said, the objective is to reduce the need for Paramedic attendance, which (in my opinion) is putting extra pressure on our already over-stretched community nursing service.

It's a good concept I suppose, but as ever, there's no extra resources forthcoming.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

I think we are doing something similar but wording is different. The reason I know this as my NP had to ring for an emergancy ambulance last week and was asked if it was amber red and something else. She just replied I ehhh... I just want a 999 to take a patient to hospital who had central chest pain

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Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.

ah i see,

we have a rapid response team which is mainly staffed by community nurses, it aim is to try and prevent hospital admissions and help people stay in their own homes they do iv therapy and medical care.

i assume this is the same thing

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ah i see,

we have a rapid response team which is mainly staffed by community nurses, it aim is to try and prevent hospital admissions and help people stay in their own homes they do iv therapy and medical care.

i assume this is the same thing

Not sure if this is exactly the same thing Claire, we have been doing what you describe above for quite a while now, although we don't have a dedicated team solely for rapid response, we have to fit this work in with our regular "list". The Cat C initiative is purely responding to 999 calls. Where does your rapid response team get their referrals from? Sounds interesting.....this is the kind of info I'm after, comparing how different Trusts are implementing this :)

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Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.

as im not in the community, im not sure but i will find out if you like, actually ive never thought about it before, i know it is relatively new, i think they can look after somone for 3 days after that they have to decide to pull out or admit to hospital, if i find out i will let you know

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Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.

actually have just found the web link its http://www.shropshire.gov/olderpeople

if you just put www,shropshire.gov into the bar it will bring up the county services and its ther under rapid response

when i looked at the site it said that they can be cared for for 7 days not 3, sorry.

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we have a rapid response service for this type of thing they are looked after for 3 days and a care package is set up then they are passed over to the district nursing team.

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we have a rapid response service for this type of thing they are looked after for 3 days and a care package is set up then they are passed over to the district nursing team.

Hi sheilab :)

I just read your other post on the 'rapid response team' thread. We have a very similar set-up in our area, they are referred to as the 'RATS' :chuckle

Seriously tho........it's just short for 'Rapid Assessment Teams'

They do a great job :)

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Specializes in Multiple.

Hi

In some parts of the UK, NHS Direct take the CAT C calls from the ambulance service and assess and refer if required. I know I used to when I was on the phones - we triage and advise - often these patients require reassurance and GP care, other times a dentist, and other times home care advice.

It's a real eye opener to the lack of knowledge of the workings of the NHS by the general public.

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