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The Adult Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) service is provided in east and north Hertfordshire. For residents in west Hertfordshire, a service is provided by Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust.

All the speech and language therapists are registered with the national regulatory body, the Health and Care Professions Council, which maintains an online register of Speech and Language Therapists meeting the required standards.

The service works as a team to provide integrated, seamless care to adult patients with speech, language, communication, voice or swallowing difficulties. The care is patient-centred with individualised packages based on clinical evidence, good practice and clinical experience. The service works in partnership with patients and their families and with other professions, multidisciplinary teams and partner agencies to reduce the impact of these often life threatening and isolating difficulties on people’s lives.

The service has a culture of service review and development to meet identified needs.

The service is delivered from acute hospitals, community hospitals, rehabilitation units, intermediate care locations, residential and nursing homes and patients’ own homes. The patients are seen in the most appropriate setting to their needs.

The SLT service operates open access for referral for all disorders with the exception of:

• Dysphagia (swallowing) referrals should be made by a Doctor
• Dysphonia (voice) referrals require ENT examination prior to SLT assessment in line with national recommendations

Adult speech and language therapy information or view this in an accessible format

Contact the service

 

East and North Hertfordshire
Email: hcnt.sltenhct@nhs.net

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Autism assessments

HCT are currently offering a hybrid service of virtual and face-to-face appointments depending on the needs of your child. The majority of our autism spectrum disorder (ASD) assessments are face-to-face with some being undertaken as virtual video-based assessments with the multi-disciplinary team. This means you and your child or young person can be seen at home via video link. A clinician will contact you in advance of an appointment to discuss the process and how the assessment will be carried out on the day.

This way of working is in line with national and international expert guidance, and ensures our families and staff are kept safe. In addition, this model of working is helping the team ensure that children, young people and their families can receive support based on their individual needs. Virtual assessments have already helped us to reduce the time it is currently taking to review and assess each individual.

When your child or young person is nearing the top of the waiting list, we would be grateful if you and/or the school setting where appropriate could complete and return all the forms which we will send. The forms will typically be sent by email.

If your child’s needs have changed and you no longer require an assessment appointment, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can offer the appointment to another family. You can contact the ASD administration team by emailing hct.autism@nhs.net.

If your child is under the care of the East and North Hertfordshire paediatricians, based at Lister Hospital, QEII Hospital, Danestrete Health Centre and Hertford County Hospital, please email autism.enh-tr@nhs.net.

Whilst you are waiting for an assessment appointment, we suggest you review the information available from the Hertfordshire County Council Local Offer. The Local Offer includes a range of materials, bookable courses and workshops which can provide invaluable guidance on supporting your child or young person, both before and after their assessment. The Local Offer website is www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/localoffer.

There are an increased number of workshops for parents, carers and families awaiting ASD assessment. You can find the dates and details for the workshops by accessing the Local Offer website.

 

Making a referral for ASD assessment

Please see "Making a Referral" section below. Updated referral forms and guidance are now live.

Click here for more information about ASD.

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Breastfeeding support groups

For information on breastfeeding support groups please visit the Hertfordshire Family Centre Service website. Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust is committed to supporting breastfeeding and is in the process of implementing Unicef baby friendly standards countywide.

There is more information on Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative on their website.

Baby clinics

To find your nearest baby clinic, please click on the links below for further details.

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The adult bladder and bowel care service has a team of specialist nurses who have advanced knowledge in the assessment and treatment of bladder and bowel problems and provide clinics in East and North Hertfordshire. We provide a telephone advice line and also offer visits to housebound patients. For residents in west Hertfordshire, a similar service is provided by Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust.

This service offers professional, confidential advice and treatment options for bladder and bowel problems, with the aim of improving or curing your symptoms. 

Whether you’re visiting us for diagnosis or treatment, our team of specialists are here to support you.

Incontinence, whenever it occurs, is a distressing and embarrassing condition, which greatly undermines quality of life, impinging on the independence and dignity of the individual.

We can offer conservative treatments along with advice and support for individuals experiencing bladder or bowel problems.

Some of the treatments that we provide are:

• Bladder training
• Pelvic Floor Exercises
• Lifestyle changes (weight, fluid intake, diet)
• Medication
• Biofeedback
• Flowmetry
• Intermittent Self catheterisation
• Specialist Appliances (sheaths, male/female urinals)

We recognise that patients with bladder and bowel care requirements need very special attention to make sure they receive the correct care and advice to suit their lifestyle. Our team of experts is dedicated to making you feel comfortable and keeping you informed throughout.

Specialist team

The team comprises of 10 staff:

• 5 registered nurses
• 3 clinical support staff
• 2 administrators

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East and North Hertfordshire

The cardiac rehabilitation programme in East and North Hertfordshire is run by a cardiac rehabilitation nurse specialist in the community. The exercise classes for patients are run by the Lister Hospital (East and North Herts Trust Cardiology). The cardiac specialist nurse can deliver a home programme and give you advice and practical support after coming out of hospital. You can make an appointment to be seen at home or in clinic. 

The East and North programme is available from Lister Hospital for:

• Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Patients following percutaneous coronary intervention (stents)
• Patients following coronary artery bypass surgery

(Please note heart valve replacement or repair does not always meet the criteria for East and North Hertfordshire exercise classes - home visits and the home exercise programme is the pathway in this area.)

West Hertfordshire

The service in west Hertfordshire is now provided by Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust.

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From 27 June 2022, Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust is providing a care coordination centre for frail residents in Stevenage.

This new service has been developed by Hertfordshire County Council and Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust to provide an integrated triage function and care coordination across multiple organisations.

The care co-ordination centre will ensure a person receives the right intervention at the right time, by the right professional.

Patients will be triaged by the East and North Hertfordshire integrated care coordination centre and multi-organisational multidisciplinary team who will agree the most appropriate organisation to undertake an initial visit with the patient.

The visiting organisation will feedback to the multidisciplinary team and any additional referrals or input from other organisations will occur.

Updates on interventions or frailty status are monitored and tracked by the East and North Hertfordshire integrated care coordination centre and the referring service will be kept informed of the action(s) taken. The care coordination centre will act as a central point of information and co-ordination and will ensure system-wide visibility of people with frailty and their past/current support.

Any patient who is registered with a GP practice in Stevenage and who has been identified as frail or who is recovering from or at risk of falls can be referred. If referrers are not sure which pathway in the community a patient requires, or if a patient requires multiple referrals to multiple services, then a single referral can be sent into the Care Coordination Centre, who will triage and ensure the patient is placed on the correct pathway.

The pilot will run in Stevenage for 3 months and there will be continuous evaluation for the duration of the pilot period and a final evaluation will be completed to include any lessons learned, and changes that are required prior to the wider roll out across the East and North Herts system.

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