About our Frailty service
On this page
About the service
We are based at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and see patients who have either been referred to our service from the community (e.g. their GP) or those who have attended the Emergency Department following an acute illness or event such as a fall.
We see and care for patients in a variety of settings:
- Emergency Department
- Frailty Assessment Unit
- Frailty Same Day Emergency Care (“Frailty SDEC”)
- Frailty Virtual Ward
The Frailty team
We are a multi-disciplinary team comprising of:
- Advanced nurse practitioners
- Doctors including consultants, specialty doctors, GPs with special interests and resident doctors
- Nurses
- Physiotherapists
- Occupational therapists
- Support workers
- Pharmacists
Our aims
For more information on why we’re working together to make getting you home safely a priority see our There’s no place like home pages
The Frailty Team provides a friendly and holistic service.
We aim to:
- Provide a multidimensional holistic assessment identifying issues that are of concern to patients and provide advice and help to address these issues
- Help maintain independence
- Help people remain in their own home or environment
- Prevent unnecessary hospital admission
- Provide information to relatives and carers
- Liaise with agencies that can provide ongoing support in the community
For older people, being in hospital can make frailty worse. Hospitals are busy places and it can be hard to get the individual care you need to stay active and independent. You might be less mobile and spend more time in bed, which can lead to muscle weakness and further loss of independence. Familiar routines are disrupted, which can lead to confusion and disorientation. Going into hospital also increases your risk of other complications, such as falls, infections, and delirium.
Whenever possible, it’s usually best to be treated at home or in a community setting. Our team may make referrals to community teams and signpost patients and/ or their relatives to other services that will be able to provide ongoing support in the community.
Older people are referred to our team from various healthcare professionals in the community, including GPs, paramedics, frailty matrons, and community hospital teams. Following assessment by our team, we will arrange investigations and treatments where appropriate and aim to get people back home where possible.