More patients to be treated at home in Scotland thanks to new service

The Out-patient Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) has saved 45,000 hospital bed stays over the last year and is now set to be rolled out further across Scotland.

The new service enables people to be treated at home or in out-patient settings and reduces the need for hospital admission and long stays.

Intravenous antimicrobial therapy and other complex antibiotic treatment will be available to patients in out-patient clinics at a convenient time. In some cases, these treatments will be available at home.

The service is part of the right care in the right place initiative along with other programmes which aim to reduce pressures on the rest of the system.

Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Humza Yousaf said: “I am pleased to see the roll-out of the Out-patient Antimicrobial Therapy service. We know that our accident and emergency departments continue to be under significant pressure, and that is why we are working at pace to deliver this scheme, and others like it, to provide more care in the community while reducing pressure on hospitals.

“We know there is a real benefit to treating people at home where possible. We are determined to build on this success and want to see this approach adopted across as many health boards as possible.”

Dr Andrew Seaton, Chair of the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group and Consultant in Infectious Diseases, said: “Hospitals are under significant pressure as we try to recover from the effects of the COVID pandemic and there is a real need for initiatives to support recovery and promote different ways of caring for our patients traditionally managed in hospitals.

“OPAT is an excellent example of how nurses, pharmacists and doctors can work together to provide high quality patient centred care without the need for a hospital bed. The focus now on further developing virtual capacity and new ways of working with support across Scotland for initiatives like ours is very welcome”.