Contacts
Contact:
Janine Waters
Business Development Manager
Organisation:
Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS TrustBusiness Development Directorate
Springhill II Unit 41 Business Park Brindley Way Wakefield West Yorkshire WF2 0XQ United Kingdom
Tel:
01924 582000
07789 176166
Email:
Case study:
15 September 2007
Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme - The Leeds Project – transportation of palliative care patients in Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Key points
- Marie Curie is funding a two-year pilot in Leeds to provide a dedicated ambulance and transport service for people with palliative care needs
- The main aims will be to ensure patients’ preferred place of care is respected and to achieve better coordination between hospital, hospice, ambulance service and the community
A dedicated palliative care ambulance and transport service has been set up in Leeds with the aim of responding at short notice to requests for the discharge or transfer of patients with palliative care needs.
The two-year pilot project, has been developed by the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme in partnership with Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
To support the new service there has been development of an operational policy on transfer between, and discharge from care settings and a review of the DNAR policy.
The main aims of the service are to:
Help patients close to the end of life achieve their choice of place of care by reducing delays in discharge caused by transport
Ensure appropriately trained ambulance staff provide quality care to palliative care patients during transportation
Provide effective ways of working with professionals
Achieve better co-ordination between the hospital, hospice, ambulance service and community.
It is hoped the service will provide a flexible and responsive citywide resource.
Existing evidence suggests demand for such a service will be high, and the expectation is the ambulance will be in use seven days a week and will deal with an average of six journeys per day.
The activity will be closely monitored to capture a range of information which will include unmet need.
Patient transfers will be prioritised according to two categories:
Category 1 – End of life discharge
Category 2 – Transport to clinical unit for urgent palliative treatment
This system of categorisation would ensure that Category 1 patients would receive an appropriate and rapid response.
During periods of Category 1 inactivity the resource will be utilised for Category 2 cases ie inter-hospital transfers, palliative treatment, admissions etc.
Staff already receive comprehensive training from Yorkshire Ambulance Service but the dedicated ambulance crew have received additional training, which is delivered through existing and tailored training programmes supported by other providers such as hospices.
Marie Curie will fund the service for two years from May 2007 to March 2009.
If the intervention proves to be successful, YAS and healthcare commissioners will consider continuing the service.
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