A new service at King’s Mill Hospital is helping patients who would normally need to stay in hospital for intravenous antibiotics get home quicker — meaning they can get back to their everyday life quicker and making hospital beds available.

The Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT) service offers an alternative to an inpatient stay for patients who are otherwise able to go home but need to continue a course of intravenous antibiotics.

It means their treatment continues to be administered in the OPAT clinic at King’s Mill Hospital or in their own home.

The service was introduced for eligible respiratory patients in December.

Normally, those who require antibiotics intravenously are kept in hospital for the duration of the course of antibiotics.

This new service means patients can be fitted with a midline or PICC line — thin tubes inserted into a large vein in the arm so that antibiotics can be delivered directly to the bloodstream — before going home. They then return to the OPAT clinic at King’s Mill each day or have their antibiotics at home for the duration of the course, which is normally around two to three weeks.
Jeff Roper, 73, of Shirebrook, a regular patient at King’s Mill because of asthma, was the first patient to benefit from the new OPAT service.

“Last time I was in hospital with an infection that affected my breathing I had to stay in for three weeks as I was on a course of intravenous antibiotics, where they had to be administered three-times a day, including early morning.

“This time using the new service has been a very different experience. Within a week I was going home with just a midline catheter in my arm knowing that I just had to come back to clinic each day, which is easy for me as I’m so local.

“I’m much more comfortable at home and sleeping better than I would be if I was in hospital.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals’ OPAT lead nurse, Kimberley Whysall, said: “This new service operates a seven-day service, 365 days of the year. It is a positive change for Sherwood Forest Hospitals as it means patients who are eligible for this type of treatment can get back home much sooner.

“It also helps patients feel they have more choice and control over their treatment, especially as the OPAT service offers patients a choice — from self-administration at home, where patients or their carers are taught how to administer their antibiotics independently, to nurse-led administration within the clinic or at the patient’s home.

“We’re starting the service within the respiratory speciality, but we will be expanding to other specialities within the hospital.”