Single Point of Contact (SPoC)

Information

What is the West Lothian Community Single Point of Contact (SPoC)?

The West Lothian Community Single Point of Contact (SPoC) is a community single point of contact for people who are at imminent risk of hospital presentation or admission but who can be safely managed in the community.

SPoC is designed to support Primary Care clinicians and other professionals with the rapid coordination of community services to meet a person’s urgent care needs – the aim is to have a plan in place within 2-4 hours of referral.

The Aim of SPoC

The aim of the SPoC is to provide an urgent care single contact point to access health and social care community teams (including emergency social care, REACT D2A, Crisis Care, Falls Assessor, equipment, Third Sector support etc.) thus avoiding GPs, and other referring professionals within GP practices, having to make multiple referrals for urgent care needs.

The SPoC Team

The SPoC team currently includes Band 7 SPoC Leads with advanced decision-making skills. The SPoC Leads come from a range of health backgrounds (including nursing and therapy) and there is recruitment underway to expand the team to also include social workers.

If the referral meets the access criteria, the SPoC Lead(s) will triage and assess, before navigating health and social teams to develop a coordinated health and care plan, which is communicated back to the patient’s in-hours GP practice clinical mailbox, the patient, carer(s) and family, within 2- 4 hours.

Service Operating Times

SPoC is open 7 days a week, operating on weekdays 8am-8pm and weekends/public holidays 8.30am-4.30pm.

Who can refer:

Currently SPoC is taking referrals from all West Lothian GP practices, LUCS GPs, District Nurses and the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Who to refer:

Adults (18+)
Residents of West Lothian
Patient/Carer/Guardian consent gained

Who not to refer:

Where the primary symptom/concern relates to an acute mental health problem (with the exception of acute cognitive impairment due to dementia which requires social support), the person should not be referred to SPoC.
Where a person requires advice, assessment and/or intervention from Hospital at Home, please follow usual H@H referral pathways.

Please note that referrers will only need to call one number – the West Lothian SPoC and H@H team will work closely together to ensure all necessary referrals are coordinated appropriately. Where other services are required in addition to H@H, H@H will pass on the referral to SPoC but retain responsibility for the patient’s medical care.

How to refer:

SPoC can be accessed by telephone for a ‘prof-to-prof’ referral by calling 01506 523124 .