30th October 2025
The community transformation programme is entering an exciting new phase, with new ways of working being tested, refined and embedded to make a real difference for patients and staff across JUCD. Here’s a brief update from each of the programme’s three main workstreams:
Incoming bed demand workstream
- Community navigators are now based at the front doors of Chesterfield Royal Hospital and Royal Derby Hospital, helping identify patients who can safely return home or access community-based support instead of being admitted to hospital.
- In only the first few days of the trial we saw several cases of successful admission avoidance.
- One example was a 90-year-old man who was able to return home safely with support from the virtual ward and community teams rather than being admitted overnight – a great example of acute and community collaboration.
- Work is also starting in same day emergency care (SDEC) to explore further opportunities to reduce unnecessary admissions.
Complex discharge workstream
- The new care transfer hub at Chesterfield Royal Hospital is now triaging all referrals and helping people move smoothly out of hospital and to the right place of care.
- Early data shows a positive impact – the percentage of complex patients discharged within the target period has risen from 53% to almost 60%, and the average length of stay after being declared medically fit has fallen from 5.9 to 5.4 days.
- In Derby, the care transfer hub is expanding across more wards and plans are being developed for the longer-term vision of how the model can best work across both sites.
- Work is also underway to improve digital access and case management visibility to ensure every patient has a clear plan with daily huddles and clear escalation routes helping keep things moving.
Home-based enablement workstream
- New ways of working are being introduced across both city and county teams to increase capacity and improve consistency of reablement services.
- In the county, three teams are now trialling a capacity forecasting tool to help shape rotas and staffing around demand.
- Teams are using this to spot gaps early and come up with solutions to keep services running smoothly.
- In the city, three design workshops have now been completed with strong engagement from teams and new operational dashboards are being developed to help track progress.
Collectively, these changes are helping create a more joined-up, flexible and person-centred community system – one that keeps people well, independent and supported in the place that’s right for them. Thank you to everyone involved for your energy and teamwork in helping us reach this point. The difference this work will make for our patients and communities is already becoming clear.