Covid Oximetry @home in the South

What was delivered in 2020-21?

• Working closely with their system partners, the three AHSNs in the south east (Kent Surrey Sussex, Oxford, and Wessex AHSNs) supported the rollout of two major programmes, at pace, to help keep over 16,000 Covid-19 patients safe and well at home. We have also worked with West of England and South West AHSNs to similarly support our partners in the south west region.
  
  
• The AHSNs were directly commissioned by NHS England and Improvement (NHS E&I) to work with their partners – notably their respective ICS leadership, primary care, key clinical leaders, and others – to roll out the Covid Oximetry @home and Covid Virtual Ward programmes.

The programme supplies patients with a pulse oximeter and asks them to record their oxygen saturation figures. These are monitored by primary care health professionals, and should the saturation levels drop beneath 95%, patients are urgently contacted – and sometimes admitted to hospital. This is to avoid the patient suffering from ‘silent hypoxia.’

From January 2021, Wessex AHSN (along with Oxford and Kent Surrey Sussex AHSNs in the south east, and West of England and South West AHSNs in the south west) has continued to work closely with our partners to implement the next stage in the Covid Oximetry programme – the Covid Virtual Ward – which facilitates safe, early discharge from hospital for Covid-19 patients along with their treatment package started in hospital.

The Covid Oximetry @home programme was featured on BBC South Today in December 2020. It included an interview with a patient with Covid-19 who was taken to hospital after his oxygen saturation level fell. This coverage was organised by the Wessex communications lead. 

Remote Oximetry with Inhealthcare

In Wessex, we also secured funding from NHSX to buy licences for Inhealthcare - a platform for Covid Oximetry data to be recorded and easily accessed by clinicians and patients alike.

Find out more about Inhealthcare below: