July 26th, 2022Home-based health care

Tens of thousands of Victorians are taking up the home-based care programs across the state – easing pressure on the health system – with nearly 56,000 people receiving care from the comfort of their home since Better at Home started last year.
Better at Home allows Victorians to access experienced nurses, clinicians and allied health professionals at home, surrounded by their loved ones, as part of a more convenient and tailored experience for patients.
The program also worksto free up much-needed capacity across our hospital network, with an extra 200 beds freed up across Victoria since the program started in July last year.
Since the program began, regional health services have also delivered more than 71,000 daysthat would have been spent in hospital at home for almost 10,000 patients across 25 regional health services in Barwon, Gippsland, Loddon Mallee, Hume and the Grampians.
St Vincent’s has expanded its Hospital in the Home (HITH), Rehab@Home and GEM@Home programs after receiving more than $8.1 million in funding from the Andrews Labor Government through Better at Home in 2021/22.
Since July last year, around 1,600 people have accessed the St Vincent’s HITH program, which sees patients receive hospital-level care in the comfort of their own home during visits and checkups from healthcare staff.
Around 200 Victorians have been supported through the St Vincent’s Rehab@Home program since Better at Home started, while more than 330 patients have accessed geriatric services through its admitted GEM@Home program.
A $162 million package was also announced last week to double Northern Health’s Virtual ED, deploy specialist staff across 12 major hospitals to improve patient flow and make innovative changes to better balance the load across the system.