ECL Ward-led Enablement Service wins prestigious NHS accolade

We're delighted to announce that our Ward-led Enablement programme at Colchester Hospital has been awarded a gold medal in the NHS Reconditioning Games.

The Reconditioning Games are part of the NHS Recondition the Nation campaign to raise awareness of deconditioning that can take place as result of immobility in hospital and care home settings.

Our Ward-led Enablement service was nominated for a gold medal by the NHS East of England Regional Team, in recognition of the impact that the service is having on helping older people in hospital to keep moving and regain their independence.

Delivered in partnership with East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), Ward-led Enablement gets older hospital patients up and moving around as soon as possible after their treatment to help improve their recovery time.

Debbie Edgell, ECL Regional Business Manager said: “We are thrilled to have been awarded a Recondition the Nation gold medal. To have our work at Colchester Hospital recognised out of the hundreds of organisations that were involved is a real achievement.

“Functional decline is a common outcome of hospitalisation in older people and our reablement teams work in collaboration with nursing staff to help patients get up, out of bed and moving around as soon as possible to help prevent it. This win acknowledges that our model works and I hope it encourages more hospitals to embrace this method of reablement.”

Ward-led Enablement launched at Colchester hospital in October 2022. Eight months in, the service has reduced the average length of hospital stay by seven days and has successfully reduced the amount of people remaining in bed for no medical reason to zero from a baseline of over 54% before the programme began.

One of the programme’s success stories is eighty-year-old Roy who was admitted to hospital following the sudden loss of feeling and control of his legs. Roy made a remarkable recovery thanks to the fact this reablement care started while in hospital rather than once he was discharged. Watch Roy’s story https://youtu.be/WQQZa-Vpzww

The success of the Ward-led Enablement programme at Colchester Hospital has already attracted interest from both the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust and The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT), and the service is now being piloted in Basildon, Broomfield, and Southend hospitals as well as in the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow.

For more information about ECL’s care while in hospital visit ecl.org/services/care-in-hospital