NHS Islington...

Your local NHS

District Nursing

Who is the service for?

The District Nursing service delivers nursing care to people over the age of 16 in their own homes who are unable to travel anywhere else for care.

The service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

What are District Nurses?

District Nurses are registered nurses who have had additional specialist training. The service is made up of 9 community based teams on 8 different sites across the Islington. Each team is led by a qualified District Nurse and is made up of registered nurses, health care assistants and phlebotomists. They work closely with GPs, social services, hospitals, community matrons, continuing care nurses and voluntary agencies. Our District Nurse Team Managers are qualified Nurse Prescribers. They use their expertise and professional judgement to prescribe wound care products and simple medicines.

What does the service do?

Our service includes:

• Helping people to manage their own medicines safely at home
• Giving injections for insulin
• Managing wounds, both short term e.g. after surgery and long term e.g. leg ulcers
• Managing the care for people who have been agreed for Continuing NHS Healthcare funding
• Delivering nursing care to help keep patients in the community rather than in hospital e.g. giving intravenous antibiotics
• Flu immunisations for the housebound

The district nursing teams are particularly skilled in providing palliative/end of life care to keep people at home who want to stay at home for as long as possible. This is supported by access to additional staff employed to help with end of life care and may mean visits from nurses from District Nursing teams up to 5 times a day. We work very closely with GPs and specialist nurses to manage people’s symptoms to keep them as safe and comfortable as is possible.

What you can expect

You can expect the following from our service:

• To be treated as an individual.
• Individually tailored care that you and your carer have been involved in planning.
• Care delivered with respect, privacy and dignity.
• Courtesy and helpfulness.
• Confidentiality.
• If you need to cancel a visit please inform your nurse or the message taking service.
• We expect to work in an environment that is safe and free from abuse.

How to access the service

The majority of people access the District Nursing teams by calling the 24 hour District Nursing Message service on 020 7530 3456. District Nurses often work in people's homes rather than health centres so it is best to contact them via the 24 hour contact number where a message can be passed quickly to them.

Below are the people who refer to the service regularly:

• GPs
• Hospital staff including consultants, specialist nurses
• Social workers
• NHS and Local Authority therapists
• Practice nurses, community matrons and specialist nurses
• Palliative care nurses
• The Younger Person's Eligibility Panel
• Voluntary agencies
• Clients, relatives or carers

Downloads

• District Nursing Service Leaflet
• District Nursing Service Leaflet - Easy read