National Clinical Homecare Association (NCHA) represents companies and organisations providing Clinical Homecare Services to 310,000 patients in the UK. Clinical Homecare patients receive consultant-led care in community settings. Given the choice, many patients choose to be treated at home rather than in hospital or as outpatients. Clinical Homecare has been relentlessly growing at over 20% year on year. The NHS Five-year-forward view anticipates the further extension of Clinical Homecare Services to treat patients in community settings. Clinical Homecare is often associated with high cost drug treatments and accounts for £2.1bn or 30% of the NHS secondary care medicines budget. This would rise to 60% if extended to all medicines known to be suitable for homecare.
NCHA Members provide patient centred Clinical Homecare Services that are safe, cost effective and ensure seamless integrated patient care. The NCHA is at the forefront of ensuring high standards are applied across the industry working closely with the NHS National Homecare Medicines Committee, NHS Commercial Medicines Unit, NHS England, NHS Scotland, NHS Trusts, and commissioners to ensure patients who wish to receive homecare can access high quality Clinical Homecare Services.
NCHA was established in 2006 and issued the first Clinical Homecare Industry Code of Practice in 2007. Since then the NCHA has gone from strength to strength, offering membership to Homecare Organisations who sign up to the stringent criteria of the NCHA. Patients, clinicians and NHS commissioners can rest assured that NCHA Members have achieved a core set of standards in terms of the provision of Clinical Homecare Services.