Intravenous home therapy services offer patients and hospitals the option to have parenteral drugs administered at home, rather than undergoing hospital admission and stay for the same treatment. There is a wealth of evidence that such services do provide a safe, clinically effective and cost efficient service for a wide range of chronic and acute conditions, and is already well-established for the treatment of many conditions such as cystic fibrosis and AIDS.

Healthcare at Home typically provides these services to hospital A&E, Oncology/ Haematology or General Medicine departments for the treatment of mainly soft tissue infections, where the patient has no severe systemic illness, and where there has been failure of enteral therapy, thus necessitating admission for intravenous therapy. Hospital staff identify those patients who may be safely discharged, and with the services of Healthcare at Home, arrange for these patients to have parenteral therapy at home, with review at the department arranged.

The Healthcare at Home nurses provide a rapid response to referrals, as well as providing 24 hour cover for any problems or concerns the patients may have about the therapy. Palliative care patients can also be treated at home as part of this service.