Clinical homecare services often revolve around the provision of specialist medicines which patients administer themselves at home with appropriate support and training. Some clinical homecare services also include healthcare professionals visiting patients at home to provide support and training or regular home visits to administer the medicines. In all cases the clinical responsibility for the patient remains with the clinical referring centre or prescriber. Clinical homecare services are often delivered by a clinical homecare provider, many of whom are NCHA Members.
The details of any clinical homecare service will depend on the treatment pathway, however, they all follow a similar pattern as shown below.
Figure 1: How clinical homecare works
Most clinical homecare services in the UK are provided for NHS patients with 80% of the clinical homecare services cost being funded by the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the medicines. The remainder of the services are commissioned directly by the NHS or provided to private patients. Patients wishing to access clinical homecare services should discuss the options available with their Clinical Team.