District Nursing
Our District Nurses provide care to patients who have a short term nursing need, require nursing specialise in addressing the needs of patients in the community and are experienced in delivering care in a home setting and from treatment centres at GP surgeries. They can be contact over a 24-hour period, but are not an emergency service, as they deal primarily with housebound patients.
Our District Nurses are based at Clayton House, Burscough Industrial Estate, Burscough, Ormskirk L40 8JU
Our Out of hours team are based at Skelmersdale Walk-in Centre, Concourse Shopping Centre, Skelmersdale, West Lancashire WN8 6LJ
For all District Nurse services contact:
t: 0300 247 0011
e: vcl.westlancs-spa@nhs.net
District nursing services are provided by teams of nurses who are linked to GP practices, within a geographical area.
Most teams comprise of a trained District Nurse Team Leader, with a specialist community practitioner qualification at First Degree level, Community District Nurse Practitioners and Health Care Assistants with Level 2 or 3 NVQ qualifications.
The District Nursing Service aims to encourage patients/carers to adopt a healthy lifestyle and promoting self-care. This includes assessing, planning and providing high quality, individualised care to patients of the service, enabling individuals with long term health conditions to achieve quality of life and independence, and preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and GP appointments/visits.
The team provides a range of nursing interventions to patients within their place of residence and in clinical settings.
Who is the service for?
The District Nursing Service provides care, treatment and support to housebound individuals who have an identified physical need for a nursing intervention. The individuals must be at least 18 years old and registered with a West Lancashire GP.
How to access the service
The District Nursing service operates an open referral system from patients, carers, health professionals and public sector partners. The patient must be considered to have a specific health or nursing need that requires the expertise of the District Nursing team.
Referrals for a place of residence visit must only be for a patient who is unable to leave the home, or if it is considered that the place of residence is most suitable environment for the episode of nursing care to be delivered.
Prior to the referral to the service the patient and his/her carer should have been informed that the referral is being made and their consent obtained and recorded.
