A new research study, ParAid, is aiming to improve end-of-life care for patients, when they need the support of the ambulance service in the last year of their life.
We know that 999 calls are increasing for individuals and their families at end-of-life, which may be because services in the community are under pressure e.g. those provided by family doctors and community nurses.
Little wide scale research has been carried out to understand the contribution played by paramedics in these situations and how this might be improved
We know that paramedics attending patients at end-of-life face complex issues such as: not knowing the patient or their family, lack of availability of patient history, fear of doing wrong, issues with family conflict and a lack of healthcare professionals to hand over to out-of-hours if the patient is to remain at home.
These issues can mean people are admitted to hospital when circumstances mean they could be cared for at home.
The ParAid study aims to evaluate services and care provided by paramedics to people in the last year of life. Paramedics across England have been surveyed to understand their professional practice and what factors influence this, and conduct in-depth case studies (collecting information from patients, carers and healthcare professionals) to examine different ways of delivering services and how these shape paramedic decision-making and management of risk.
It is important to evaluate service delivery and understand how the best service features can be incorporated into other services to improve the quality of care and support provided to patients and their families.
This may prevent unnecessary hospital admissions at end-of-life, which often leads to people dying in hospital when most people state they would prefer to be cared for, and die, at home.
Have your say
We would like to hear from anyone who needs to use our service due to end-of-life care needs. If you:
- Live in North East England?
- Have had an ambulance call out in recent months AND
- Are 18+ living in your own home and in the last year of life
- Or are a current or bereaved carer for someone in this situation
And you’re interested in taking part in this study, please contact the research team on paraid
