An advice telephone line for health and social workers in Wiltshire has led to the majority of patients being treated at home rather than go into hospital.

The new service, run by Wiltshire Medical Services part of the Medvivo group, was set up earlier this month and in the first three weeks had received 24 referrals from GPs, paramedics, social workers and telecare companies seeking advice and help to look after high risk and vulnerable patients.

Of the referrals 22 patients were able to be treated without the need to go into hospital. As the average cost of an emergency admission to hospital is £4,000 this has saved Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group £88,000.

The advice line is operating as a trial and fits in with the CCG’s community transformation project, which aims to move care away from hospitals and care homes to provide care as close to home as possible.

The CCG’s governing body was told at a meeting on Tuesday that extra staff were being recruited to bolster the urgent care health system.

Last winter the Royal United Hospital, Bath, was under severe pressure due to an high number of emergency admissions.

CCG officer Jo Cullen told the meeting that extra consultants had been recruited to the RUH’s emergency department, medical assessment and surgical assessment units in order to meet seven day working.

Additional funding is also being made available to increase GPs working at weekends. In total the CCG is spending £13.5 million on urgent care services this year.