Since its launch last March, Gran Canarian primary care professionals have registered to participate in the new Home Urgent Care service for vulnerable patients, with a total of 4,980 attendances, which means an average of 30 daily trips to care for patients at home.
The device provides urgent day-to-day assistance to vulnerable patients who, due to their condition, can receive care at home without being transferred to a hospital or out-of-hospital emergency room.
This is one of the directions of improvement considered in the Primary and Community Care Strategy (+AP), which targets older populations who are included in home care programs, have reduced mobility, or have special circumstances that prevent them from accessing health care. The pilot program is being carried out in the island’s most populous cities: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Telde and Arucas.
On the other hand, one of the specific goals of this service is to provide quality care to patients who can be evaluated at home, avoid unnecessary referrals to emergency services, and reduce the pressure on care in hospital and out-of-hospital emergency departments.
Personnel and fleet
A total of 44 professionals make up the service: 11 doctors, 11 nurses, 2 para-nursing technicians, 2 administrative staff, 16 drivers and 2 orderlies.
The program consists of four vehicles and is based at the Miller Bajo Health Center. Recently, the Primary Care Administration of Gran Canaria has started to introduce a new vehicle that replaces another vehicle that has been in use until now and becomes a backup vehicle for special situations.
Each vehicle is equipped with resources such as nursing and medication briefcases, as well as consumables, so that the necessary assistance is always available according to the needs of each patient.
reason for consultation
After evaluation by medical and nursing professionals, the devices are activated to provide coverage and assistance for various types of consultations. There are many conditions and reasons for urgent consultations that can be resolved at home, eliminating unnecessary referrals and reducing wait times.
Therefore, operations such as respiratory tract infection that does not affect the general condition, acute urinary retention, bladder catheter obstruction, gastric tube dislodgement, urinary tract infection that does not affect the general condition, urinary catheter obstruction or detachment, etc. will be treated in the hospital. Nasogastric cancer pain in the patient’s home, advanced or palliative patient, without respiratory distress and diabetic decompensation, with altered level of unconsciousness.
Ulcers and wounds not compromising general status, gastroenteritis, trauma in non-anticoagulated patients without altered level of consciousness, headache and neuralgia without neurological deficit, fever without initial source and not compromising general status will also be treated .
focus on immigrants
The project also enhances the care of recently arrived migrants at the Barranco Seco Police Facility who require care following an initial assessment under the Migrant Care Protocol on the Beach.
Attention to migrants requires specific shelter assistance, tailored to the circumstances of migration flows. Special emergency services teams support this exceptional care and provide support to professionals in essential health fields who face increased medical stress among the populations arriving on the coast of Gran Canaria.