Who we are
The Out of Hours team is an Urgent Response Community Nursing Service working overnight in Norfolk and Waveney from 6pm-8am. Our Aim is to avoid admission to acute setting by providing urgent community nursing care.
Our service
The Out of Hours Community Nursing team provide urgent nursing intervention to patients overnight to avoid admission to hospital. We can provide acute and initial catheter intervention, palliative symptom control and support, acute wound care, acute diabetes support, acute bowel care, acute drain care and urgent injection administration. We are also a useful nursing resource for patients, GP’s, Social Services (including Swift's and Night Owls service) and the Ambulance trust overnight.
Who we care for
Patients over 18 years old who are located within Norfolk and Waveney area and are known to Norfolk Community Health and Care. We also receive new referrals from Out of Hours GP’s, 999, Social Services, Acute Trusts and patients on holiday in our area. If you are already known to the Trust, you can directly contact the Team overnight via our call handlers CallEast who will take your details and forward the information to our dedicated Out of Hours Coordination team for triage. The Senior coordinator will then contact you to triage your health concern and assess if an urgent response is needed. A team of qualified nurses and HCA/Drivers are working throughout the County overnight and will be dispatched to you as soon as possible. Please note that the response time will depend on capacity and triage assessment but we aim to be with our most urgent need patients within 2 hours.
Referrals can also be made to us via 111.
Where are we?
The Out of Hours Coordination Team is based at Norwich Community Hospital but we also work in partnership with East Coast Community Healthcare to deliver care for Great Yarmouth and Waveney.
We cover all areas in Norfolk and Waveney and have around 8 teams working each night plus the coordination team in Norwich. Teams are dispatched appropriately to ensure the closest and quickest response times.
Contact us
To contact the team please call 01603 481234 or 111. Please note: our working hours are 6pm to 8am. Outside of these times please contact the single point of contact on 01603 518444.
Help with health costs
If you're referred to hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests by a doctor, dentist or another primary care health professional, you may be able to claim a refund of reasonable travel costs under the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS). Find out more about the HTCS.