Contacts
Contact:
Sue Pender
Integrated Team Leader
Organisation:
Hull Teaching PCTOut of Hours Palliative Care
Westbourne NHS Centre Westbourne Avenue Hull East Yorkshire HU5 3HP United Kingdom
Tel:
01482 335498
Fax:
017919 544502
Email:
Case study:
16 August 2007
Out of hours nursing service in Hull
Key points
- Hull’s palliative care nursing out of hours service is seeing more than 2,000 new patients a year and helping to cut hospital admissions
- The service responded to more than 650 emergency calls last year
- The team is able to access key palliative drugs and nursing equipment
- It offers a single point of referral and tries to ensure any call for unscheduled care is answered by a qualified nurse.
Three years after it began, Hull’s out of hours palliative nursing service is now receiving over 2,000 referrals a year and has responded to around 650 unscheduled crisis calls in the last year.
The team, which has integrated with the out of hours district nursing service, offers a rapid response to people’s nursing needs outside normal hours.
And it aims to help anyone with palliative care needs, not just those with cancer.
The service was set up in November 2004 to try to tackle the high incidence of hospital admissions for palliative care patients at night.
What soon became clear was that many out of hours services already existed including an out of hours GP service, an evening district nursing service, a night-time nursing service, local authority home care service, private home care provision and Marie Curie cancer care nursing.
But none saw themselves as leading on palliative care.
The result was the formation of a dedicated Out of Hours Palliative Care Team which was integrated within the evening and night time nursing teams and the Marie Curie Service to ensure a coordinated approach to night-time care.
The main aims of the service are to allow more patients to be cared for at home and – if it is their preferred place – to die at home.
The service offers one point of access for all out of hours nursing referrals, makes essential nursing equipment available round the clock and tries to ensure all requests for unscheduled care are answered by a qualified nurse.
It implements a call and support system where a nurse phones the patient or carer each evening to offer advice and support.
Nurses will also visit intermittently during the night if needed.
Referrals to the team, which is based within the Westbourne NHS primary care centre alongside the out of hours GP, have increased each year.
Last year, the service received 2,015 new referrals, of whom more than 650 were responses to an emergency and nearly 1,400 were planned continuation of care.
It is very rare for a patient undergoing active care from the team to be admitted to hospital during its shift.
The service is currently working with clinical groups to develop an integrated care pathway for specific diseases – including palliative care/end stage disease elements and care provision within the out of hours periods.
It also hopes to establish a single point of contact for both nursing and social care.
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