Hertfordshire Care Provider Support Service Directory

All pathways are triaged by the same team who will determine the most appropriate response. At a minimum you will be asked for: Patient demographics, and if relevant: History of presenting complaint, working diagnosis, any commencement of treatment or changes to medication, next of kin details and any observations obtained. NB: For wound and catheter care, please continue to refer to the Community Nurses in the established way.

Heart failure/COPD Virtual Hospital (These services can also be accessed directly Respiratory: Mon – Sun 9am-5pm Respiratory Advice Line: 07944 960 825
Heart Failure: Mon-Fri 9am – 5pm 03000 200 656 (Option 2 then Option 5)

Care Home Clinical Leads

Stort Valley now Joanne Sexton Joanne.sexton@nhs.net

WGC Claire Watts claire.watts13@nhs.net

Stevenage South Amy Lemon amy.lemon@nhs.net

Stevenage North Katy Ball katy.ball4@nhs.net

Hoddesdon and Broxbourne Sam Norris samantha.norris7@nhs.net

Hertford and Rurals Sarah Turner sarah.turner47@nhs.net

Hatfield Linda Parry linda.parry2@nhs.net

The HILS NAT team provide care home staff with tailored training sessions to help you provide the best support for your residents’ nutritional needs. Care homes that provide excellent levels of nutrition support can achieve a bronze, silver, or gold accreditation in Nutrition Awareness. This quality marker will help people choose the right care home for them and recognises the hard work of care home staff in looking after their residents’ nutritional health. Delivered in partnership with Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group and Hertfordshire Integrated Nutrition and Dietetic Service (HINDS). This service is free to care homes catering to older people and people with learning disabilities. For more information, visit: https://hils-uk.org/support-for-groups/nutrition-awareness-training/

Additionally complete the referral form and send to hct.westherts.dietinfo@nhs.net for the Nutrition and Dietetics team from Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust

The Epilepsy Specialist Nurses work with people aged 18 years upwards, who have a learning disability and epilepsy. Due to the huge volume of referrals, they will get involved for a specific task or concern, and when this is resolved they will stop working with the person. The Epilepsy Specialist nurses can support the Neurologists or Consultant Psychiatrists with medication changes to reduce the number of seizures, as well as devising Rescue Medication protocols and carrying out Home Safety Risk assessments. The Nurses can help family/paid carers understand the risks and ways of managing the persons epilepsy with a best quality of life as possible. To look at our Easy read resources visit our website. www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/LDepilepsy

As the Health Improvement and Prevention Team for Learning Disabilities (HIP-LD), we actively engage with all care providers dedicated to serving individuals with Learning Disabilities. Our specialization lies in navigating a diverse spectrum of complex cases, particularly those concerning health-related matters. Our foremost objective is to proactively prevent unnecessary hospital admissions while concurrently augmenting the proficiency of care staff. We prioritize skill enhancement in pivotal areas such as Soft Signs, Sepsis, Urinary Tract Infection, SBARD, among others, thereby ensuring comprehensive care for individuals with Learning Disabilities within our community.

AIM:

• Our goals are to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.
• support care providers by enhancing staff skills, and
• collaborate with multidisciplinary teams (MDT) to deliver quality care.
• Additionally, we aim to proactively support high-risk individuals with complex care needs, assist acute care providers in discharging medically optimized individuals from hospitals, offer advice to family/paid carers on monitoring physical health changes, and provide guidance on enabling leisure activities to reduce behavioural impacts during reduced activity levels.

Our Referral Pathway:

1. Referral Received: Submit referrals to HIPLD.Team@hertfordshire.gov.uk
2. Acknowledgment: We promptly acknowledge receipt of all referrals.
3. Priority Assessment: Referrals are prioritized based on urgency using our RAG rating system.
4. Case Assignment: Each referral is assigned to a dedicated member of our team.
5. Engagement: We initiate contact with the care provider or individual involved.
6. Assessment and Care Delivery: We conduct comprehensive assessments, analyses, and deliver the required care accordingly.
7. Staff Training: If necessary, we provide soft signs training to enhance staff skills in alignment with our recommendations.
8. Signposting: We offer guidance to relevant health professionals through appropriate signposting.

How To Contact Us:

• Email: HIPLD.Team@hertfordshire.gov.uk
• Telephone: 01438 845372
• Working Hours: Monday to Friday, 09:00-17:00
• Link to website: www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/ldmyhealth

STOMP LD is a national agenda created by NHS England, in recognition of the fact that people with learning disabilities tend to be overprescribed all types of mental health medication. The eligibility criteria for STOMP LD is must have a learning disability, must be taking ANY type of mental health medication, must not be under the care of a mental health team and must not have any known mental illness.

For more information please either contact the STOMP LD team or follow this link - NHS England » Stopping over medication of people with a learning disability, autism or both (STOMP)

Website www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/ldmyhealth

Referrals can be  made through various sources including CVI from hospitals, professionals and self referrals.

• Referrals from professionals can be made directly to Sensory Services Duty on:

Tel: 01442 454832

  Email: sensory.services@hertfordshire.gov.uk

• Self referrals can be made to the HCS Customer Services Centre online or on:       Tel: 0300 123 4042

Minicom: 0300 123 4041

Signvideo via Contact us page

SMS Text: 07812 322225

Email: sensory.services@hertfordshire.gov.uk

Whole care home approach:

- South and West Hertfordshire: hct.westherts.dietcarehome@nhs.net   

- East and North Hertfordshire: hct.eastnorthherts.dietcarehome@nhs.net   

Patient referrals - online referral portal (excluding enteral feeding):

- South and West Hertfordshire: https://forms.hct.nhs.uk/NDAdultsSouthWestReferral/NDAdultsSWReferralForm/#!/

- East and North Hertfordshire: https://forms.hct.nhs.uk/NDAdultsEastNorthReferral/NDAdultsENReferralForm/#!/AcceptanceCriteria  

Home enteral feeding:

-South and West Hertfordshire: hct.westherts.hef@nhs.net  

- East and North Hertfordshire: hct.enhertshef@nhs.net

The Purple Star Accreditation is given to GP Practices in Herts that demonstrate a commitment to bridging the health inequalities gap faced by people with a learning disability and taking steps to enabling equitable health outcomes. They are supported, enabled, and monitored in achieving and maintaining the standard. 

Useful Links:

My LD Health

Hertfordshire "My Purple Folder"

Community Learning Disability Nursing Service - YouTube

IMPORTANT: WE NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU - CLICK HERE

Online referral route - here

Please can you encourage people to make a self-referral via our patient portal available on our webpage HPFT-iapt.nhs: Homepage | HPFT IAPT Services (hpft-talkingtherapies.nhs.uk)

The learning disability nurses work with the GP and with experts within Herts Community Trust to take steps that are beyond reasonable adjustments to overcome barriers where all reasonable adjustments have been attempted.

For specific role within the health liaison team look at the details under

• Epilepsy Specialist
• Health Equality Nurses
• Hospital Prevention of admission team
• Acute Liaison Nursing
• Experts by Experience
• Purple Star Strategy
• Creative Practitioner and Purple All Stars

Alongside the LD nursing service the experts by experience advisor adds depth to training by sharing personal experiences. They can also be a strong voice in service adaptions and individual barriers by sharing own experiences and helping people with a learning disability hear direct from someone else who has been through similar experiences.

• Monday to Friday
• 8am – 4pm
• Stoma Care Nursing Service:
• 01438 284133
• stomacare.enh-tr@nhs.net
• Ardens Referral