The Adult Speech and Language Therapy (S<) Service provides assessment and treatment for adults (16 years and over) who have an acquired difficulty with speech, language, dysfluency (stammering), voice (including transgender voice) or swallowing. 

The service works within Bedford Hospital, seeing inpatients and also provides an outpatient and domiciliary service to patients with a Bedfordshire CCG GP.

The Bedford Warfarin Service manages stable or largely uncomplicated patients over the age of 18 who have been prescribed warfarin for a medical condition, where their blood clotting time needs to be increased to prevent clots from forming. The service is part of Bedfordshire Community Health Services and available to patients registered with a Bedford GP. 

Address: Bedfordshire Bedford MK41 6AT United Kingdom. 

Referrals are via SPoA. 

Opening hours
Hours of Service Monday to Friday: 8.30am-4pm

The Complex Care Team provide support to residents in care homes who are unwell with a minor illness or injury. 

The team also support residents in care homes after discharge from hospital and new admissions to the care homes. The pharmacy team support with medication reconciliation and pharmaceutical queries.

This service supports individuals with epilepsy within the community, working collaboratively with hospitals, GP practices, community services and the voluntary sector; focusing on self-care and maintaining independence. 

The team offer personalised care planning and support, training and guidance where needed and hope to reduce hospital re-admissions and associated health needs for their service users.

The Bedfordshire Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Service is a specialist multi-disciplinary fatigue management service. We support people living with Myalgia Encephalomyelitis (ME)/CFS in Bedfordshire to understand and improve management of their symptoms.

For some people a diagnosis of ME/CFS is not indicated, and these circumstance, patients are offered a feedback appointment and signposting to the most appropriate services. 

For those diagnosed with ME/CFS, this service offers treatment that is in line with the current NICE guidelines for ME/CFS. Our tailored multi-disciplinary approach includes, specialist Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Psychology.

Community Matrons have advanced clinical and diagnostic skills and are responsible for the case management of patients with complex long term conditions. As well as case management, Community Matrons are responsible for providing treatment to patients (except when treatment needs to be provided by a specialist provider). 

Each patient will have a personalised health plan and a Community Matron will oversee the care co-ordination and joined up services across health and social care.

The service is available to anyone with a confirmed diagnosis of MS, who has a Bedfordshire GP, and is not under any other NHS MS Nurse Service. It is part of Bedfordshire Community Health Services (BCHS).

The service provides scheduled/planned care to house bound patients who have complex nursing needs. 

The primary purpose of community nursing is to provide holistic health needs assessment for patients, families and carers. 

Community nurses provide skilled clinical judgement to enable patients to improve, maintain or manage their health problems, in order to achieve the best possible quality of life. The service also supports and manages end of life pathways.

See the service page

The overall aim of the Rare Neurological Conditions Service is to provide specialist Neurological advice to patients with a diagnosis of Rare Neurological Conditions and support and advice to their families and carers.

Referral Via SPoA

To be accepted onto the Rare Neurological Conditions caseload, patients must be over 18 years of age, registered with a Bedfordshire GP and have a definitive diagnosis of a Rare Neurological condition.

The Service accepts referrals from a range of sources, including ELFT clinicians, GPs, acute hospitals, other professionals such as social workers, private providers including the hospice and care agencies, and residential homes.

Hours of service 

Monday to Friday 08.30-16.30. Address is Queensborough House.

Bedfordshire Continence Service provides treatment, advice, and support for all people over the age of 18 with continence needs across Bedfordshire and Luton. This service is for people who are registered with a Bedfordshire or Luton GP and are within their practice boundaries. 

Continence Advisors are qualified nurses who have undertaken specialist training in the treatment, containment and management of continence symptoms. They can assess and plan a person’s initialised continence programme.

The aim of the Diabetes Psychology Service is to support people living with Diabetes with improving their quality of life, increasing their skills in managing Diabetes and helping you cope with the any difficulties that you might experience because of diabetes.

The service offers education, advice, support and NICE guidance care to patients, families and other healthcare professionals who have or treat patients with a syndrome of heart failure. 

Our aim is to see patients with a diagnosis with reduced ejection fraction heart failure (HFREF), however, with support from the GP and cardiologists this can be extended to those with HFPEF (preserved ejection fraction)

Community Occupational Therapy provides health-related equipment for patients. 

The service provides comprehensive moving and handling assessments for equipment and where required, training and advice to patients and carers. The service refers to and liaises with social services occupational therapists (OTs) regarding major adaptations referrals.

The Palliative Care Hub is a palliative care coordination and support service run by Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice in Bedfordshire. It offers short-term nursing care, personal care and emotional support for individuals with a life-limiting condition and their families. 

The Palliative Care Hub works with local care providers, GPs, district nurses, Specialist Nurses, the ambulance service, and other health and social care professionals to coordinate and provide the best possible care for you.

The Parkinson’s Disease Service provides medication reviews and monitoring of specialist drug therapy, screening, specialist telephone advice, specialist education and support for patients and carers.

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, progressive neurological condition, affecting different aspects of life at different times of the disease process. 

This in turn determines the appropriate care required to improve patients’ and carers’ quality of life, while maximising clinical effectiveness and best practice.  

The phlebotomy service is for housebound patients unable to access alternative services.

Address
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
LU6 3JA
United Kingdom

Opening hours
8am-5pm, Monday to Friday

Telephone number
Call via Single Point of Access (SPoA): 0345 6024064

Podiatry is a medical speciality, dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of foot and leg problems. We provide a high quality, responsive service in well equipped and maintained surgeries, based on a patient’s clinical need. 

We target the service towards those individuals who have been assessed as needing the specialist skills of a podiatrist 

Examples of appropriate referrals might include people with the following conditions: 

• Diabetes at risk 
• Rheumatic disease 
• Neurological disease 
• Immune deficiency 
• Septic or infected sores or cuts 
• Ulceration Vascular or coronary disease 
• Patients on high risk drug therapies

The SPoA is coordination centre for adult services within Bedfordshire Community Health Services. This centre is accessed via a single number, which is where the name SPoA comes from; it stands for ‘Single Point of Access’. 

The SPoA provides customer service and information for service users, family, carers and healthcare professionals.

he Tissue Viability (Wound Care) Service provides holistic assessment delivered in the community and other care establishments. The team provides specialist assessment, advice, care planning and treatment for patients with active wounds and for those requiring follow up/prevention of further episodes after treatment. 

The service also provides specialist support and advice to other professionals for complex wound management e.g. Pressure Ulcers, Diabetic Foot Ulcers, wounds needing sharp debridement, topical negative pressure therapy or larvae therapy.

The aims are to prevent, contain and manage the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). Providing individual care to support people with TB and their families. 

By rapid intervention and assessment of those suspected of active tuberculosis, the TB nursing service expects to prevent the spread of Tuberculosis within the community by arranging treatment at the earliest opportunity and by identifying and screening those who have been in contact with and are at risk of developing Tuberculosis. 

The Bedfordshire Urgent Community Response pathway provides a nursing and therapy as required, response to patients registered with a Bedfordshire GP experiencing a physical health crisis requiring treatment and support. 

The team consists of nursing and therapy staff with advanced clinical and diagnostic skills to enable them to appropriately diagnose and treat patients in the community, avoiding hospital admission where it is safe and appropriate to do so. 

The team also works closely with local authority, ambulance staff and acute hospital colleagues to ensure joined-up care for the patient and family.

Virtual wards allow clinically assessed patients to get the care they need safely, where they feel most comfortable: at home. It’s sometimes called 'hospital at home.' 

Patients on a virtual ward are cared for by a team of experts who can offer a range of tests and treatments. Every patient has a personalised care plan designed to meet their care needs. Virtual ward patients have regular contact with the team who will call or visit and check how they are progressing. 

Telephone number:

Single Point of Access (SPoA): (0345) 602 4064

The Wheelchair Service provides the framework to clinically assess and then provide appropriate wheelchairs with associated equipment to patients with a long-term need, (long term defined as six months plus) who require a wheelchair for all their mobility both indoors and outdoors and who may also have postural and pressure care issues. 

Once provision is established, the Wheelchair Service will support the equipment provided and will offer reassessment as required. The service works with children over 36 months and adults who have a long term condition. 

The service undertakes individual assessments to identify mobility needs and supply the appropriate equipment. Assessments are completed in our clinic. 

In addition the service: 

• Provides bespoke adaptations to wheelchairs either ‘in–house’ or through a rehabilitation engineer 
• Utilises specialist technicians to assist therapists, check stock in and out, and respond to urgent domiciliary specialist seating

Adult and Older Adult CMHTs are available with reduced face-to-face contact and increased telephone support. Teams are beginning to offer remote consultations with service users where appropriate if agreed. The CMHTs have an extended duty out-of-hours provision at weekends and bank holidays 9am-5pm which can be accessed by service users calling into their CMHT base.

The out-of-hours service is based at Calnwood Court in the South and Florence Ball House in the North. No change in referral routes. Refer via email as normal.

NHS service is open for GP referrals of eating-disordered patients and advice/consultation to GPs.

• Tel: 01582 293333
• Email: elt-tr.eatingdisorder.service@nhs.net 
• Stepped care charity partner 'Caraline' is open for GP and self-referrals of mild/moderate severity eating disordered patients.
• Tel: 01582 457474
• Email: caraline.com@nhs.net

Face-to-face courses and workshops were suspended but individual student telephone/email support and free online courses and workshops.

• Email: elft.recoverycollege@nhs.net
• Telephone: 01234 263621 (Bedford) and 01582 708917 (Luton)

Continuing to provide treatment to current service users by replacing face-to-face contacts with telephone and/or interactive video sessions whenever possible. Complex Needs Service users who are currently completing DBT, and require additional support to apply the skills they are learning, can access telephone skills coaching on weekdays between 9am-5pm by calling the service on 01582 709074.

The service will not be offering assessments to new service users at present. Instead, the service is offering consultation to Community Mental Health Teams in Bedfordshire to support the provision of effective care for service users with complex needs. 

Providing 24/7 specialist support to those living with dementia, as well as the family, carers, and professionals caring for those with dementia.
Open to individuals registered with a Bedfordshire GP (excluding Luton).
Email completed referral forms to elft.diss@nhs.net

Patients can continue to self-refer by the normal methods (email, phone or website). All therapists are working from home so please do not send referrals by post – please send by email or by SystmOne. Email address for GPs to refer to is: elt-tr.BedfordshireWellbeingService@nhs.net
BWS Covid Specific Offer

Accepting referrals.
CAMHS has developed plans that ensure young people are managed safely through the crisis. This will include a combination of face-to-face contact as well as the use of other mobile technologies. They have contacted all their young people and families to ensure they are fully informed of the plans.

CAMHS continues to provide telephone consultations for partner agencies and stakeholders from Rush Court in Bedford and Charter House in Luton.  Beech Close in Dunstable is now operating from Charter House to share the resources appropriately.

GPs should continue with referrals to the Trust’s Crisis and Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) teams as usual.

Alternative mental health crisis support as an alternative to A&E (all ages):

Luton and South Beds Mental Health Assessment Hub
Calnwood Court, Calnwood Road, Luton, LU4 0LX
Tele: 01582 538631
A trained mental health professional will be able to offer assessment and support 24/7

The CMHT teams are continuing to provide depot and clozaril clinic appointments for service users. Service users are advised to call before travelling for a depot injection appointment to confirm details.

Path 2 Recovery (P2R) – Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire
Path to Recovery , Bedfordshire Adult Specialist Addiction services continue to offer free, confidential advice, support, and treatment (in light of Covid19- not necessarily face-to-face).
If you or a loved one are struggling with COVID-19 and all this entails and the way of coping is drugs or alcohol, and you'd like some support to manage the link to refer yourself is: pathtorecovery.elft.nhs.uk 

Accepting referrals.

Telephone or video support and advice are available outside of normal hours for anyone experiencing anxiety or crisis.
Call the service on 07939 931622 during its hours of business which are as follows:

• Monday – 5.30-9pm
• Tuesday – 5.30-9pm
• Friday – 5.30-9pm

If your call goes to voicemail please clearly leave your name and contact telephone number and a member of the team will respond to you as soon as they can.

Face-to-face contacts for urgent cases, consultation by phone or video link for all other appointments - the multidisciplinary team is available for advice and guidance as well as formal referrals
No change in referral guidance at present
Contact: Clinical Resource Centre Twinwoods on

• 01234 310589
• or via email on: elt-tr.spldreferrals@nhs.net

Face-to-face contact where necessary for those people who have a learning disability and have a deterioration in their mental health, an increase in their behaviour that challenges, or both. Consultation by phone or video link for all other appointments.
Working jointly with the Mental Health Crisis Team for out-of-hours calls
No change in referral guidance
24/7 Crisis Line for IST 01234 310538 

Telephone contact and video link contact where agreed for consultation
No change in referral guidance

• Email autism.service@nhs.net
• Clinical Resource Centre, Twinwoods 01234 310589