A TRIAL scheme to help medical patients self-manage their care is set to double in size.

Hundreds of people with chronic health conditions in the York area have recently been offered weekly telephone support, which the NHS says is reducing admissions to hospital.

The Vale of York Proactive Health Coaching initiative is run by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) as a trial for the telephone-based Health Navigator project.

It recently won the Self-management award at the Medipex Innovation Awards and Showcase.

Health Navigator is widely used in Sweden and Denmark, and sees a care coach support patients with chronic conditions over regular phone contact, to reduce stress on A&E departments.

The scheme was rolled out 12 months ago to 400 local patients, and following positive feedback from the patients and clinicians, the CCG is expanding the study to another 400.

Fiona Bell, from the CCG, said: “By supporting patients who are currently high users of services with weekly coaching calls, this trial is already showing high levels of patient experience and reduced attendances at A&E, fewer admissions to hospital and patients reporting more confidence in managing their conditions.

“There’s some brilliant work going on in the system".