A collaborative pilot between Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) has successfully tested a new community based model of care for patients who have fallen at home. Running from July to October 2025 for two days per week, the service paired a Consultant Radiographer from Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals with an Advanced Paramedic Practitioner from SECAmb to jointly review 999 calls, assess patients in their homes, and provide rapid X ray imaging using a mobile machine. Images were transmitted instantly to Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals for reporting, enabling clinical decisions within around 30 minutes.
This approach meant many patients could be safely treated at home, avoiding unnecessary Emergency Department attendances and ambulance conveyances. Despite limited resources, the team demonstrated impressive innovation, establishing safe imaging processes, organising IT capability, and delivering a seamless, patient centered service.
The pilot showed clear clinical, operational, and financial benefits, with strong support from patients and families.
Andrew Moth, Consultant Radiographer at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals who co-created the project and is also a community first responder- a volunteer member of the community trained to respond to emergency calls in conjunction with SECAmb said, “It’s been very successful, and is a revolutionary service, the first of its kind in the UK where a Radiographer works alongside an Advanced Paramedic Practitioner.”
James Fern, Advanced Paramedic Practitioner at SECAmb who helped co-create the community scheme said, “For some patients, there can be risks or upset caused by going into hospital. It can be a big change in the routine of someone with dementia, for example. Being treated at home helps reduce patient anxiety. If they went into hospital, they would still get the same package of care but this way they are getting it in the comfort of their own home.”
Andrew added, “It’s not a lesser service in any way. The image quality of the X-ray is very good. Patient experience has been high with 100% of patients saying they were happy to have the X-ray at home.”
Following its success, phase two has now launched for a further four months, with an increase in operational days to five per week. This will allow the team to reach more patients and strengthen the evidence base for long term adoption.
This initiative exemplifies integrated working across organisations and has significant potential to become a sustainable, permanent model of community based care, improving outcomes for vulnerable patients and reducing system pressures.
