Delivering the right care, at the right place, at the right time.
In the current economic climate and with increasing demands on finite resources, providing evidence based on value for money is integral to supporting service commissioners and policy makers in the difficult decisions that have to be made.
The Project
Help-Point+ is a specialist mobile treatment facility within Swansea City Centre which providers care to vulnerable people who require treatment as a result of accidents, injuries or violent attacks; often as a consequence of excessive alcohol consumption. The aim of the project is to divert intoxicated people away from the care of police officers and reduce the burden on NHS Accident and Emergency Departments.
SCHE was commissioned by the Policy and Crime Commissioner for South Wales and South Wales Police to develop an evaluation of Help-Point+ to determine if the service was good value for money as part of a long-term programme in the Safer Swansea Community Safety Partnership.
The Evaluation
A costing model was developed to compare the costs of delivering Help-Point+ services compared to a hypothetical ‘no service’ comparator. A micro-costing exercise was undertaken to provide a detailed estimate of the annual running costs for the Help Point+ service. For the ‘no service’ comparator published estimates reported that 80% of admissions to the Help Point+ service would usually have involved an ambulance and an emergency department visit.
What we found
The evaluation findings were positive, showing sizeable cost savings due to reduced emergency department attendances over a 12 month period. In the absence of a robust comparator SCHE tested the evaluation with best and worst case sensitivity analyses, and threshold analyses to determine how much the cost parameters used would have to change to produce £0 cost savings. This ensured the results provided were useful for decisions on future commissioning of the Help Point+ service.