Starting on Home Parenteral Support

Starting on Home Parenteral Support (HPS) can be an overwhelming time. There's a lot to think about and learn, and it can take time to come to terms with life changing events. Whilst you will get to know a lot of the people in the Calea team, it is your hospital team who have overall responsibility for your care. If you do have any specific questions about your treatment, or related health concerns, please continue to contact them.

Being on the Calea HPS service means you (and your family) will have access to a specialist nurse who can help answer any general questions you might have about your HPS. In office hours, the nursing team can be accessed via Calea Patient Services, but Calea also provide a 24-hour advice line outside these hours. More information is available in the Calea Welcome Pack.

How the Calea service works

As soon as the decision has been made between an individual and the hospital team that HPS is the best management plan, and the Calea team have been contacted, then the arrangements begin. Calea aims to make the transition from hospital to home as smooth as possible, and to ensure that each patient receives the support that is optimised for them as an individual.

Want to hear about another person's experiences starting on the Calea HPS service?

Even though we are proud of the service Calea provides, don't take our word for it. Hear from one of our patients about her experience of being discharged from hospital on parenteral nutrition, her initial challenges, and how she overcame this with help from the Calea team.

What to expect ...

Before you leave hospital

At this point, there's a lot of organising and coordinating to do behind the scenes to ensure you'll have everything you need to support a safe and smooth transition to home. Your hospital clinical team will make sure they are happy with the parenteral nutrition (PN) or fluids you are on and will start to liaise closely with the Calea team about the arrangements.

For every person, the aim is always to enable someone to be as independent as possible. In the majority of cases, just before you leave hospital, a Calea nurse will visit you to go through everything you will need to know and do to manage your HPS yourself as much as possible.

Your first Calea delivery

While being on HPS means not having to stay in hospital for treatment, it does mean quite a lot of equipment. Before you receive your first delivery ('installation'), you will be contacted by one of the Calea Patient Care Coordinators to confirm the delivery date and to go through how the Calea service works in more detail. The Patient Care Coordinators are all extremely experienced, so this is a great time to ask any questions you may have.

You'll also spend some time with a Calea nurse, who will make sure you're comfortable with the arrangements for receiving your HPS at home and how you manage your treatment.

Your on-going Calea service

A Calea Patient Care Coordinator will be your main point of contact. They'll be in touch frequently to support with managing your medicines and equipment supplies and coordinating your deliveries. You can be contacted via phone or email - whatever is best for you. We also provide a text alert service to let you know when your next delivery is scheduled. Deliveries are made on a weekly or fortnightly basis, depending on an individual's treatment schedule. You'll also have a delivery driver from a regular team who understand the importance of the supplies they are bringing.

All you need to know when starting on the Calea HPS service can be found in the welcome pack.

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