New antibiotics service means King's Mill patients can go home sooner

Shirebrook patient Jeff Roper with one of the nurses at King's Mill Hospital.

The Outpatients Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT) service also helps the NHS to free up more hospital beds at the busiest times.

Normally, patients would be kept in hospital for the duration of the course of their treatment. But now they can be fitted with thin tubes that are inserted in a large vein in the arm, so the antibiotics can be delivered directly into the bloodstream before they go home.

The patients then return to the OPAT clinic at King’s Mill once a day to have a top-up.

Jeff Roper, 73, from Shirebrook, was the first patient to benefit from the service in December.

He has suffered from asthma since the age of eight and was admitted to King’s Mill with bronchiectasis, an infection that left him struggling to breathe.

Previously, Jeff might have had to spend Christmas in hospital. But after just a week, the new service kicked in and he was able to go home.

He said: “Last time I had an infection, I was in hospital for three weeks, with antibiotics administered three times a day, including early morning.

“This new service was a very different experience. Within a week, I was going home with a midline catheter in my arm and an infuser pump.

“They were very compact and comfortable, and I slept much better than if I was in hospital.”

“It was nice to get home to my wife and get back into a routine.”