The innovative K466 service, run by NELFT in partnership with the London Ambulance Service, is the proud winner of a DAPS (Doctors Advancing Patient Safety) Global award.

The K466 partnership initiative supports older people to remain in their homes after a serious fall in Barking, Havering and Redbridge (BHR) and scooped the award at  the DAPS Global Summit at the Trent Vineyard conference centre, Nottingham on Sunday 14 November.

The DAPS Global Summit was designed to maximise the potential of its delegates, by putting them in the driving seat and helping to shape the future of healthcare locally, nationally and globally.

The K466 collaborative emergency response car scheme, launched in October 2014, is staffed by a community nurse and a paramedic working together to attend low acuity 999 calls in the over-65 population in the Barking, Havering and Redbridge health economy.

Up until October 2015, the K466 partnership has seen 1324 patients and has kept 857 patients safely at home, avoiding hospital admissions and releasing frontline ambulances to attend other calls.

The K466 scheme operates from 7am to 7pm, seven days a week, and attends 999 calls from patients aged 60 years and over.

Joanne Webb, nurse practitioner for the NELFT Community Treatment Team said: “Winning the DAPs award is further testament of the great work the K466 is doing in helping patient avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, and be cared for at home, which is something they tell us they want, and in helping relieve the pressures on local A&Es.

“We were proud to attend the DAPs summit, with our LAS colleagues, to showcase the K466 scheme.”

The K466 initiative was a finalist for a Health Service Journal Value in Healthcare award 2015 and won the award for Improving healthcare processes and outcomes category at the Patient Safety Congress Awards earlier this year.

For more information on the NELFT community treatment teams visit: www.nelft.nhs.uk/services-bdhvrb-community-treatment-team  

For more information on the DAPS summit and the awards visit: http://dapsglobal.com/summit/