Service : Community Nursing Service

We can provide you with care in your home, so you can avoid unnecessary trips to hospital.

We work with your GP, social services, and your loved ones to make sure you get the right care to keep you feeling healthy, and independent in your home.

This may include complex health difficulties around mobility and breathing. We can also support with end-of-life (palliative) care.

Our Out of Hours Community Nursing team can also help if you need help at outside of your care appointments.

We provide care right across Berkshire, but our referrals are different depending on whether you’re in East or West.

You need to be aged 18 or over, and registered with a GP in Berkshire. You must also have a specific nursing need and be housebound, either permanently or temporarily confined to your home due to illness or disability.

East Berkshire referrals

If you’re registered to a GP in East Berkshire, such as Bracknell, Slough, Maidenhead, and Windsor, and you’re currently being supported by our teams, you can contact our hub team for more information.

The team’s service hours are 7am to 7pm.

Out of hours service is from 7pm to 7am.

If you’re not currently supported by us, you must be referred to us by a healthcare professional, such as a GP.

West Berkshire referrals

If you’re registered to a GP in West Berkshire, such as Newbury, Reading, and Wokingham, you must be referred to us via our local triage teams.

At all other times, you can contact NHS 111 for urgent help

If we accept your referral, we’ll arrange an assessment to understand your health needs.

We’ll also record your current health details, such as:

• temperature
• pulse
• blood pressure
• respirations
• oxygen saturations
• blood glucose

We’ll then agree the right care with you, including how many times we need to visit you.

We make every effort to be flexible however we are unable to give specific appointment times for your home visit.

For example, every few weeks to help you build your confidence around self-care.

If we feel that another service or may be better for you, we’ll discuss the different options with you.

Different members of the community team may also visit to offer care support.

This might include a local charity or volunteer group.

Prepare for our visit

We kindly ask that you supply liquid soap and paper towels when we visit you at home to help prevent the spread of infection.

Please be aware that we are unable to wear shoe covers in your home.

This is an infection control decision as it is a health and safety risk.

Please keep pets away from the treatment area and under control during our visits.

To keep us safe, we may require you to alter surroundings, to accommodate any nursing equipment that may be required, or to aid us to complete nursing treatment.

For your health and ours, we ask that you and your family members do not smoke during our visits.

Let our team know if you need a language interpreter for your appointments.

Each time we visit you, we’ll take a new record of your health details so that we can track your progress.

We may share this with your GP or other specialists who may also be supporting you.

We’ll make sure that you have all the information you need, including our contact details. This includes an urgent contact number if you need to speak to us. 

When your health has improved and you’re feeling confident, we’ll refer you back to the care of your GP or clinic.

We’ll regularly check if our service is right for you, and whether you’re ready to be discharged from us.

We may refer you to another care or therapy service if we think it may help.