Imperial College London (ICL)

ID 416

This project aims to use WSIC data and routinely collected PATCH data to understand if the delivery of the PATCH service meets the needs of all children in NWL, and to inform future plans of service delivery to meet this goal.

The Providing Assessment and Treatment to Children at Home (PATCH) programme was launched in 2021. The PATCH service is led by nurses who assess and treat children and young people (CYP) with common childhood illnesses in Northwest London (NWL). The team uses both telephone and home visits. The PATCH programme reduces hospital admissions and supports the early discharge of patients for treatment at home. Further, previous evaluation of the service has revealed that the service has been well received by patients and their parents. Yet, concerns over accessibility varying across NWL were raised. This evaluation aims to improve understandings of how factors such as the physical location of the home and the patient’s socioeconomic group impacts the ability of patients to access the PATCH service. This will allow for the PATCH service to better target any patient groups within NWL who face barriers when they need to access PATCH. This data is being requested for the evaluation of the accessibility of the PATCH service. This will be achieved through establishing what level of service use is expected in each patient group. This will then be compared with the actual level of service usage as calculated within this evaluation. This analysis will be completed to understand: 1. If patients across all the boroughs of NWL have equal access to the PATCH service. 2. Whether patients across all socioeconomic groups in NWL experience the same level of service accessibility. Therefore, this project aims to use WSIC data and routinely collected PATCH data to understand if the delivery of the PATCH service meets the needs of all children in NWL, and to inform future plans of service delivery to meet this goal.

20/06/2024

TRE