A pilot project of new NHS services to bring healthcare closer to patients' homes has been launched in Birmingham.

NHS Birmingham East and North (BEN) is working in partnership with Healthcare at Home Ltd, a leading UK provider of clinical homecare, to develop personalised care for patients in their own homes.

The new services will run as pilot projects for twelve months across east and north Birmingham. They are expected to reduce hospital stays and prevent unnecessary admissions.

The project involves important elements of service redesign, including a new Enhanced Supported Discharge service to support fracture patients and an Acute Community Based Care Service for patients with long-term conditions, initially focusing on COPD.

The support being made available includes a rapid response team, new care pathways and a dedicated care bureau, which will provide a 24-hour telephone nurse triage facility.

Andrew Donald, Chief Operating Officer at BEN, said: "We are delighted to be welcoming the first patients onto these unique programmes, which will bring healthcare closer to patients' homes, providing 24/7 care, helping them to get out of hospital quicker and reducing their need to go there in the first place.

"The project will increase access to more community-based services and improve the quality of life of patients, offering them more personalised and innovative care while improving their health outcomes. BEN and Healthcare at Home Ltd will be working closely together in this."