The Reactive Emergency Assessment Community Team (REACT) is on the shortlist for a national award. The REACT team are a finalist in the 2019 Health Service Journal awards, in the ‘community or primary care service redesign’ category. The REACT team helps prevent an average 616 hospital admissions, and 472 emergency department (ED) attendances at Ipswich Hospital every month.
REACT was set up in January 2018. It brings together hospital and community staff from East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), Suffolk County Council, Suffolk Family Carers and the British Red Cross. More recently, it has included Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s dementia intensive support team.
The REACT team work 24/7 to carry out home assessment when a patient has reached crisis point. They put the right care in place to prevent an admission to hospital.
They also assess patients in the hospital’s ED and emergency assessment unit and provide appropriate support at home to allow them to be discharged.
Rebecca Walker is REACT service lead with ESNEFT. Rebecca said: “We are delighted that our dedicated team has been shortlisted. They work tirelessly across organisational boundaries. They work every single day to ensure our patients receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

The REACT team
“I could not be prouder of the way the whole team has come together. They place the patient at the centre of everything they do and work across organisations to provide collaborative, high quality care.”
NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) worked with ESNEFT to develop the service. Hannah Lord-Vince is senior transformation lead for integrated care at the CCG. Hannah said: “Over the past five years we have completely transformed admission avoidance services for Ipswich and east Suffolk by developing a fully integrated community-based admission avoidance hub.
“This has been achieved through true partnership working with organisations in the East Suffolk Alliance to achieve our vision of moving care closer to home. REACT is fast becoming an example of best practice. The team continues to share its model of care with regional, national and global audiences.”
The REACT team will find out if they have won the award at a ceremony in London on 6 November.
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