District Nursing Service
Our service provides non-emergency nursing care to housebound patients in their own home or residential home for patients aged 18 years and over. Home visits will be offered by exception if you are classed as housebound due to mobility issues, severity of illness, cognition, social or communication needs, or if treatment in a clinic would be detrimental to your health, treatment, or well-being. For non-housebound patients’ treatment room appointments are expected.
Patients are classed as housebound if they are temporarily or permanently confined to their place of residence due to illness or disability and are unable to use any form of transport (with or without assistance) to leave their home to attend medical or therapy appointments.
The service is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Planned visits take place between the hours of 8am and 8pm. Between 5pm and 8am, we have an Out of Hours service who provide essential visits and unplanned urgent visits only.
The service provides community nursing support to any person meeting the referral criteria which includes complex and long- term health conditions, palliative care and end of life care, post operative care, wound care, pressure area management, leg ulcer management and catheter management.
Our Teams
Each district nursing team is supported by a lead nurse and a workforce which consists of district nurses, specialist practitioners, community staff nurses, nursing associates, assistant practitioners, health care assistants and administration staff. The staff member with the most appropriate skills to provide your care will be allocated to assess your nursing needs and provide your ongoing treatment. Our teams also support students completing formal clinical training programmes.
Our Aim
Our aim is to achieve the best health outcomes for you. You will have a holistic assessment which covers all aspects of care. Where possible, we promote and support patients, loved ones and their carers to self-manage their care to remain independent in their own home, avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions.
Safety and Security
All our district nursing staff wear a uniform and will carry photographic identification badges. Please check this before allowing someone to enter your home. For the safety of the Nurse, they all carry a lone worker device and visits are tracked. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of violence or racism, such actions are not only against our values, but also undermine the safe and inclusive environment we strive to foster for everyone.
Accessing the service
Referrals are accepted from patients, loved ones, carers, GP’s, and other health professionals. A qualified nurse triages them to determine the priority of care.
Please note, district nurses are not able to give home visit appointment times due to the prioritisation of same day visits. Timed appointments are available through the treatment room only.
In times of very high service demand and where safe to do so, home visits may be deferred to an alternative date.
Unfortunately, due to demands on the service, we are unable to notify individual patients by telephone.
Contact
The District Nursing team can be contacted via our Single Point of Access on 0161 206 5190, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The call handlers will take your details, and a Nurse will telephone you back.
Your Team Name is: (insert team name)
What to expect from the District Nursing Service
Your health needs and care plan will be discussed with a nurse at your initial assessment and referrals to other services will be completed as required. You will be provided with a folder containing contact details for the district nursing service.
Please keep this folder in a safe place and return it to the service when your care is complete. Your care will be recorded in electronic records and will not be duplicated in this folder. You can be confident that your personal health records will be stored securely and remain confidential. For information about accessing your health records please speak to a member of the team.
What the district nursing service expects from you
We encourage independence and self-management where possible, educating you and your loved ones/carer to develop knowledge and skills to remain independent.
If you are a smoker, we request that you do not smoke whilst we are present in your home.
If you have any pets, we request these are placed in another room whilst we visit you.
If you have diarrhoea, vomiting, flu or covid related symptoms please contact the district nursing service before your visit as we may need to rearrange the time of your visit to reduce the risk of cross infection.
Comments, Compliments and Complaints
We welcome feedback on the service we provide via feedback this can be made via staff members through their QR code. If you require an alternative method of feedback, please contact us to discuss.
If you have any concerns about any aspects of your care, please contact the Single Point of Access who will direct you to the most appropriate person to discuss your concerns.
If you have any other general concerns or enquiries, the Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS) can be contacted via:
Telephone: 0161 778 5665
Email: pals@nca.nhs.uk
BSL only text reply: 07812 775 905
Alternatively, you can write to: PALS Department, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, 2nd Floor, Horton House, Hamilton Street, Oldham OL4 1DE
If you do not think PALS is right for your situation, or you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can contact the Complaints Service to make a formal complaint.
The Complaints Department can be contacted via:
Telephone: 0161 656 1141
Email: office.complaints@nca.nhs.uk
BSL only text reply: 07812 775 905
Alternatively, you can write to: Complaints Department, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, 2nd Floor, Horton House, Hamilton Street, Oldham, OL4 1DE.
Date of Review: August 2025
Date of Next Review: August 2027
Ref No: PI_ICS_1304 (Oldham)