Call-line to help care of terminally ill
AN EMERGENCY phone line is being set up to help thousands of people with terminal illnesses access urgent care. Health leaders say patients are in the dark over how to trigger services at short notice which is causing delays in pain relief, psychological support and other vital care. Now officials are looking at whether a new single call-line can be developed by the ambulance service to allow swifter help. The plea for a better system came from Barry Machin, below, a lay director of North Staffordshire primary care trust, who said: "The GP out-of-hours service manages to have a single number for people to contact in an emergency – so why can't there be one for end-of-life care?"
He was speaking at the launch of a new local NHS strategy to improve services. Previous investigations have found too many people were dying on hospital wards instead of with their families in their own homes. A shortage of specialist staff has also been blamed for people suffering needless pain because the know-how was not in place to bring their symptoms under proper control. The strategy says a doctor in palliative care has been appointed at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire and a second was being recruited to work in the community.
And all patients who have a year to live will have their own key workers. Research had shown that while between 56 per cent and 74 per cent of people said they would prefer to die at home, in the Newcastle and the Moorlands areas covered by the PCT, that happened with only 19 per cent of the 2,200 people dying every year. Referring to the omission of an emergency line, Mr Machin said: "These very vulnerable people do not know who to call in an emergency.
If they need their medication altering, there is no number they can call other than 999 for an ambulance even though they do not need one. The stress is intolerable." Allison Cape, the PCT's lead for end-of-life care, said there were moves to streamline the system and a pilot phone scheme was planned with West Midlands ambulance service, but things were complicated by the high number of different agencies people need to help them.
She added: "We aim to commission a range of high quality, safe services which address the current gaps." Cancer patient Vilma Dallal, aged 57, of Lightwood, Longton, is having the tumours in her lung, spine, bones, liver and lymph nodes shrunk by a drug on the NHS. She says: "Despite my improving condition I still know my illness is terminal and one day I will be needing these services. "Giving everyone a key worker is a good idea, but there needs to be a special number to get straight through to the services you need."
From The Sentinel, 23rd March 2010. To view the original article, click here.
End of life care is an emotive subject. Omega feels passionately about raising standards in end of life care and encourages debate. We believe it is important to share a range of opinions on all aspects of end of life care, although we do not share all the opinions expressed on our news page.
