Who can refer:
We will accept referrals from all health care professionals in both Primary and Secondary Care.
Who to refer:
District nurses provide high quality nursing interventions to individuals who are housebound or in clinically agreed circumstances where care is best provided in their homes.
Treatment plans will be explicitly agreed with individuals, using an evidence-based approach to help them regain maximum independence and health. Services include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Wound care assessments and care
- Administration of treatment or medication using specialist equipment, after a nursing assessment, appropriate for the DN team.
- Continence assessments and care planning
- Pressure area assessments and care
- Admission avoidance support which requires nursing Interventions
- Health needs assessments of chronic disease management requiring generalist nursing input
- Palliative/end-of-life care
- Health promotion for housebound patients and their carers
- Assessment and appropriate provision of specialist nursing equipment for patients in their own homes
- Teaching self-care procedures to enable patients, and their carers, to manage their own healthcare needs within the confines of their own home
Who not to refer:
These include, but are not limited to:
- Routine bloods (including INRs) for patients who have no nursing needs that require specialist district nursing interventions
- Vaccinations for patients who have no nursing needs that require specialist district nursing interventions.
- “Check visits” without clearly identified and agreed nursing needs.
- Emptying or changing urine bags.
- Routine skin care that does not require trained nursing skills.
- Administration of eye drops, nasal or oral medication.
- Filling Dosette boxes.
- Collecting and delivering prescriptions.
- Filling in medication administration charts for patients that the district nurses are not already actively seeing.
- Supporting people with social care needs alone. Patients who need help with personal hygiene, bathing, meals, housework, toileting, applying/removing hosiery, getting up/going to bed, access to day centre or respite care, should be referred directly to Social Services.
How to refer:
For Primary Care clinicians in Lothian, email relevant HSCP mailbox with the following information:
- Patient’s details – Name, CHI Number or date of birth and patient’s address.
- Purpose of referral.
- Urgency of the referral.
- Attaching a summary sheet would be helpful to the district nurses, allowing them to triage and progress the referral as quickly as possible.
East Lothian loth.eldnteams@nhs.scot
Edinburgh: loth.edinburghdnteams@nhs.scot
Midlothian loth.mldnteams@nhs.scot
West Lothian loth.wldnteams@nhs.scot
For practices using Vision, the referral form below can be uploaded. Key information, such as patient demographics, should then be automatically pulled through.
https://apps.nhslothian.scot/files/sites/2/District-Nurse-Referral-form-for-GP using vision_.docx opens a new window
Referrals sent to the District Nurses inboxes will be triaged and processed during the hours of: Mon-Thurs 08:00-16:30 and Fri 08:00-13:00. Referrals received outside these hours are triaged and processed the next working day.
If the referral is urgent and needs immediate attention, or for end-of-life care, please contact the relevant district nursing team directly by telephone.
For Secondary Care and all other Health Professionals, please complete the form below and then send an email to the relevant HSCP mailbox attaching the form.
https://apps.nhslothian.scot/files/sites/2/District-Nursing-Referral-Form-LOTHIANv8-1.docx opens a new window
https://apps.nhslothian.scot/files/sites/2/Process-for-referraing-to-district-nursing-during-the-pilot-v4-2.pdf opens a new window
