Terminally-ill patients being taken to special places of their choice under NHS initiative

December 12, 2016

Scheme gives patients the option to be taken by ambulance to place to die
They are transported by a specially-trained crew in a pilot in the North East
The project was revealed by the broadcaster Joan Bakewell on Radio 4

Ben Spencer Medical Correspondent For The Daily Mail

Published:
20:21 EST, 11 December 2016

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Updated:
07:56 EST, 12 December 2016

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Ambulances are taking terminally ill patients to special places of their choice under an NHS initiative.

The End of Life Transport scheme gives patients the option to be transported by ambulance, along with a specially-trained crew, to their preferred place to die.

Usually that involves taking people from hospital to their home, where they can spend their final days surrounded by loved ones.

The End of Life Transport scheme gives patients the option to be transported by ambulance, along with a specially-trained crew, to their preferred place to die (stock image)

But the team – which has three dedicated ambulances – also takes patients on trips if requested.

Paul Liversidge, chief operating officer at the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘On some occasions, where we have been able to, we have been able to grant last requests for patients, such as one last trip to the beach, a church mass and one last visit to the Angel of the North.

‘We have many stories showing what a positive difference it has made.

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‘For those nearing the end of their life, it is incredibly important that they are in a place where they feel comfortable and cared for, surrounded by loved ones. Speed can be critical at this time and our scheme ensures patients are picked up within a timely manner to be taken to their chosen location.’

The team has transported more than 1,000 patients in the last year.

The project was revealed by the broadcaster Joan Bakewell, who is currently presenting the Radio 4 series We Need To Talk About Death, which concludes on Wednesday at 8pm.

Paul Liversidge, chief operating officer at the North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Baroness Bakewell, said in a column in the Sunday Times: ‘Death, after all, belongs to all of us – not the medical profession.’

The 83-year-old Labour peer said dying at home ‘is best’.

Baroness Bakewell said that while many people prefer the idea of passing away in their sleep, she would rather be awake at the end, ‘possibly with some favourite Mozart playing in the background’.

‘Music could play an important part,’ she said. ‘A mixture of good memories and soothing nerves.’

The north-east ambulance project could go some way to improving the reputation of the NHS as being particularly bad at dealing with patients in their final days.

A major Department of Health review concluded that almost half of English hospitals are failing to deliver safe care for patients at the end of their life.

Inspectors have found hospitals where dying patients were referred to by bed numbers instead of their names and clinicians issued ‘do not resuscitate’ orders without informing their patients.

Professor Robert George, president of the Association of Palliative Care, said at the time: ‘Hospitals are not very well set up to deal with people at the end of their life.

‘They are in many ways conveyor belts, they are department stores where patients are treated as pathologies, not as actual people, and the focus is on turnover.’