A partnership which delivers practical advice and support to major trauma patients from the very earliest stages of their recovery is continuing to expand, with adoption by eight Major Trauma Centres nationally.
The Major Trauma Signposting Partnership (MTSP) was created in 2016, when St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recognised the need for additional support for its major trauma patients, to help them prepare for and look to a life beyond hospital.
Since that time, the project – developed by Cardinal Management alongside St George’s – has built on the success of the initial pilot to secure roll-out to eight sites across the country, currently reaching as far North as Manchester Royal Infirmary and Manchester Children’s Hospital.
Other sites to date are King’s College Hospital, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Addenbrooke’s, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire and, most recently, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
In the six years it has been in existence, the MTSP has supported over 8,000 patients, with more than 1,700 benefitting from the advice of the Partnership’s legal panel – which are appointed locally at every site – with more than £12million of private rehabilitation provided.
For the first time, it has also created an NHS rehabilitation database, mapping out resources around the country, which can be invaluable in signposting patients from outside the area to the support they will need in their own locality.
With MTSP team members in every site, the project works closely with Citizen’s Advice to deliver bespoke free advice to patients and their families at their bedsides, covering a range of practical issues including state benefits, employment and housing matters.
The project has recently secured a partnership with the Frenkel Topping Charitable Foundation, to deliver immediate financial assistance to those who need it.
Andrew Pemberton, director of Cardinal Management, who has led the roll-out of MTSP since being approached with the concept by St George’s in 2016, said the impact of the early intervention can deliver life-changing results.
“By having bedside meetings, things like rehab advice or benefits advice might not matter right now, today, when someone is still recovering in hospital, but through signposting at the right time, things can be made a lot easier for them when they are discharged,” says Andrew, who has worked in rehab for over 25 years.
“It might be things like getting Meals on Wheels lined up for their discharge home, or sorting out the Disability Living Allowance which needs to be done 8 to 12 weeks in advance – by addressing these things now, we can de-stress the process to an extent, take a lot of the anxiety away.
“Serious injury can turn someone’s life upside down, as well as that of their family, and our practical advice and support can help to make things just that bit easier for them, and the NHS.
“By having these early meetings, we can identify if we can get case managers involved at the earliest stage possible – it’s a real bugbear that six, nine, twelve months can be lost by not being proactive. If people who are still in hospital can get that support lined up so much sooner it improves their recovery pathway.
“From my initial role doing some consultancy work at St George’s, we’ve created this partnership, with ‘partnership’ being the key word. It really is a joint relationship between the hospital, patients Cardinal and lawyers, to deliver the best possible results in a more co-ordinated way for the patients and the NHS.”
And alongside its vital advice, its ability to make financial contributions for specific purposes is also a significant benefit to patients, says Andrew.
“We had a patient in intensive care whose partner wanted to visit, so we paid the £97 train fare. Shortly afterwards, that patient passed away. Through buying that train ticket, his partner was able to see him one last time,” he says.
“It can be things that don’t take huge sums of money which make the biggest difference to someone. It might be that we buy someone a mobile phone to communicate with their loved ones, or buy them some new clothes or things for their home if they’re being discharged to nothing.
“We also had an instance of a motorcyclist who had been injured, and collecting his motorbike from the garage became all he could focus on, his recovery and rehabilitation were suffering as a result, he just couldn’t focus on that.
“We were able to intervene and speak to the garage, who agreed to store it until he was able to collect it – the difference that made to him was huge.”
One big benefit of the MTSP way of working, believes Andrew, is the appointment of a panel of local expert lawyers in each Major Trauma Centre, whose contribution finances the existence of the MTSP on each site.
“We believe this is very important to have a local law firm for each hospital,” says Andrew.
“Patients can choose who is right for them as they’ll be able to meet each firm quickly and at their bedside, if they’re based in the area then they can be there quickly to provide advice.
“It’s a really important part of the triangle partnership model that the law firm is capable, trusted, and is chosen on their merits and expertise for patients at that hospital. We also benchmark them and what they are able to do for their clients, so we can reassure the NHS that their patients are getting a great service – it’s absolutely vital that this kind of data exists and we can have new levels of transparency in what they’re delivering.
“Many law firms really like this approach, it’s useful for them too to see how they stack up, rather than looking at cases individually, and it works for the Trust and patient too. We want to do the very best we can for each and every patient, and work in partnership to achieve that.”
