Enabling patients to manage their care at home

David and his wife Josie both enjoy spending time in their beautiful garden in Leicestershire, England and David is a keen artist. He developed his artistic flair at an early age and continued this whilst he served in the Royal Navy in his younger years.

During 2017 David became unwell with pain in his arms and neck and ended up in the Accident and Emergency Department of his local hospital. He was admitted to hospital having developed Sepsis, a potentially life threatening illness. He was immediately placed on intravenous antibiotics and put in a ward with a number of other patients who were unable to leave their beds. This was a difficult time for David, Josie and their family.

When David started to recover, he was offered the opportunity to continue his treatment at home instead of staying in hospital. Being given this self-care option empowered David, with support from Josie, to manage his treatment himself with Josie’s support and return to normal life.

Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) is the delivery of antibiotics intravenously and patients can have this treatment at home. Whilst at first, they were nervous about how they might manage David’s OPAT treatment, once they had received training from the dedicated nursing team at hospital they were confident in being able to change his infusion devices regularly.

David explained “I would have had to spend another three weeks in hospital if I didn’t have my treatment at home.” Josie said “we jumped at the chance to be able to continue David’s care at home. It was great to see him able to get back on his feet and back to normal and continue with his woodwork and art work.”