Depending on the patient’s presenting factors, managing complex or ‘hard-to-heal’ wounds can be a significant challenge for the community nurse. Increased longevity, while a positive also means that people are surviving medical and surgical procedures which were life-threatening in the past, with a 20% reduction in avoidable deaths. The delivery of complex community wound care is not a new concept, however, it is dependent on a number of factors such as the expectations of commissioners, providers, and health and social care policymakers, as well as the patient and the skill of the clinicians performing the care. Financial cutbacks in the NHS have also had a negative impact on the delivery of some community healthcare services. This article investigates whether all of these factors have impacted on the amount of complex wounds now being managed in the community setting.
