Therapy Discharge Practitioner

Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT) are implementing the Home First Model for patient care. This utilises the principles of discharge to assess which aims to ensure that patients who are medically optimised and no longer need a hospital bed, can leave hospital, and have their assessment in the most suitable setting. The Therapy Discharge Practitioner role is pivotal in shaping these services and asking the question "why not home and why not today?"

The post holder will provide a single point of contact for patients, families, carers and associated people and co-ordinate/contribute to the safe and timely hospital discharge in partnership with other multi-disciplinary colleagues/agencies. The post holder will be supported to develop therapy skills through competency training such as walking aid assessment and assessing for basic equipment.

This post will work over a 7 day service and therefore the post holder will be required to work weekends and bank holidays on a rota basis., The post holder will maintain momentum of discharge planning throughout the entire process; supporting and working in partnership with other members of the MDT. The post holder will act as a Trusted Assessor for health and social care pathways and will complete relevant referral pathway documentation, such as Trusted Assessor forms.

The postholder will have a more in-depth education and understanding about factors that influence health and ill-health and knowledge of the wider health and social care network of services available to support patients. for example anatomy and physiology. Your work at this level will require enhanced skills which may be within a specialist clinical area. This includes tasks such as assessing for appropriate walking aids or assessing if equipment is required to support transfers for instance (this is not an exhaustive list and will depend on the area that you work as to what activities are completed regularly and what is appropriate). These assessments will also lead to you ordering equipment for patients to support their needs based on the assessments you have carried out. You will be supported to develop these skills through competency training.

The post holder mayundertake lone working (sometimes within a patients own home) in line with Trust Policy

We employ more than 6,500 staffwho deliver compassionate care from our two main hospitals,Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary as well as in community sites, healthcentres and in patients' homes. We also are incredibly proud to have almost 150 volunteers here at CHFT.

We provide a range of services including urgent and emergency care; medical; surgical; maternity; gynaecology; critical care; children's and young people's services; end of life care and outpatient and diagnostic imaging services.

We provide community health services, including sexual health services in Calderdale from Calderdale Royal and local health centres. These include Todmorden Health Centre and Broad Street Plaza.

We continue to modernise and invest in our health services to build on our strong reputation.Foundation trusts are public leaders in improving quality in health services. They are part of the NHS- yet decisions about what they do and how they do it are driven by independent boards. Boardslisten to their Council of Governors and respond to the needs of their members - patients, staff andthe local community.

Foundation trusts provide what the health service wants, yet are also free to invest quickly in thechanges to the local community needs, in striving to be the best, and in putting their patients first.