Warwickshire Fire and Rescue to help ease the pressure on the NHS this winter

Since the scheme launched in 2018 the Fire Service has helped nearly 4,000 patients.

The aim is to support elderly and vulnerable patients who have been treated at hospital and are well enough to return home but have no friends or family to collect them.

This helps to reduce the number of patients who have to be admitted to hospital as they have no one to pick them up and reduces the pressures on hospital beds and services.

Patients can benefit from the service from three hospitals, George Eliot, Warwick Hospital, and UHCW in Coventry.

Enie Hickinson, who recently used the service, says: “Not only did they bring me home and put my bags in and make sure I was secure at home, they also went around the house to make sure it was secure too.

“The gentleman checked all the plugs in the house and made sure we’d got the correct ones. Being in the house 30 years and being elderly, sometimes you mend and make do; everything was double-checked for us so that was nice.

“When you go home [from hospital] in the ambulance it’s quite conspicuous, outside and people stare, but going home in the little fire service vehicle, nobody noticed me getting out. I found that very nice."

Once they have taken the residents home the Hospital to Home team can offer support such as getting a food shop in and Safe and Well checks.

These checks look for potential hazards that can cause slips, trips and falls.

Darren Randle-Morris, Community Fire Safety Officer at Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The vision and purpose of the fire service and the council is to make Warwickshire a safe, healthier place to live.

“By us carrying out these safe and well checks and taking these people home, it helps that person have that independence and that we’re able to support them; there are people out there to help them and they’re not on their own.