Community Emergency Department Team (CEDT)

The CEDT is provided by Solent NHS Trust on behalf of both Southampton City and Hampshire registered patients. Its aim is to support and facilitate the timely hospital discharge of patients of 65 years old and over who present to the Emergency Department at University Hospital Southampton. The service enables people to be managed within their usual residence with community services if required thereby preventing any hospital acquired complications associated with admission.

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Referral criteria

The service is provided for adults who have attended the ED and have received a medical assessment which concludes that they are clinically safe to be discharged or who have been admitted to the Observation Ward or MAU and have received a medical review which concludes that they are clinically safe to be discharged.

Direct referral to the Community ED Team or by contacting the team - 023 9228 6000, Extension 3770 / 3771

Health Professional?

Full service description

The Community Emergency Department Team including the Community Assessment Lounge supports admission avoidance for those people who are assessed to be stable following medical assessment in the Emergency Department (ED) Queen Alexandra Hospital but who require a more complex health or social care community response to enable safe and timely discharge. Solent NHS Trust provides this service on behalf of both community health trusts (Solent and Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust) for adults from Portsmouth, South East Hampshire and Fareham and Gosport who attend the Emergency Department. Patients may be referred directly after they have been assessed by the medical team in the ED or, for those patients who have required a period of observation in ED, when the doctors are satisfied that they are ready for discharge. Following an assessment of the patient’s ongoing health and social care support needs the appropriate community service(s) are put in place for patients enabling them to be discharged. Most but not all of the patients seen by the team are older people who may already be known to community services. The assessment carried out by the Community Emergency Department Team checks whether the level of support at home is adequate, and if not, referral is made to additional community service – for example social services, community nursing, physiotherapy or occupational therapy. In a small number of cases patients may be transferred from the ED to a community bed for a period of rehabilitation before going home.