Improving health and social care service resilience over public holidays: data analysis

7 Social Care and other Community Services

At present national information on other health and social care services are limited in terms of content and completeness, but it is nevertheless possible to contrast certain features of care over the extended holiday period in the winter with other days during December and January.

7.1 District Nursing Services

Information about the delivery of district nursing care is new and is currently only available from a sample ¹ of areas in Scotland. Information from this sample in the winter period in 2016-17 shows that the number of district nursing contacts during Christmas and New year days is slightly lower to that occurring during typical weekends (Chart 18). On the third and fourth day of both holiday periods the volume of contacts rises but is still lower than the normal week day level.

Chart 18

1. Analysis includes data from five NHS Boards: NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Highland, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian.

7.2 Care homes

Admissions to care homes are typically low at weekends and lower still during the first three days of a public holiday when care homes will be focussed on the festive aspects of care home life. The period after the extended holidays has lower numbers of admissions than happens at other times in December (Chart 19).

Chart 19

7.3 Home care packages

Information about people receiving new home care packages by day of the week is new and is currently only available from a sample of areas in Scotland ¹. The available information shows that the volume of new starts around the winter holiday period is much lower than in other days in December and January (Chart 20). It is also more generally suggested from this analysis that few new starts begin during weekends.

Chart 20

1. Analysis includes data from: City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian and Stirling