More patients are to benefit from the expertise of Hospiscare nurses out of hours.
A new service is being trialled which gives healthcare professionals across Exeter, mid and east Devon direct access overnight to the on-call Hospiscare nurse. It means that their specialist knowledge and experience can be used to help any patient, not just those in the care of the charity.
Liz Gibbons, Hospiscare’s Director of Nursing, explained that Hospiscare had for years been running an overnight advice line for its own patients. Now the charity was keen to ensure that the expertise of its nurses was more widely available.
“Everything is scary at three o’clock in the morning,” said Liz. “But often we can give immediate advice which can resolve a problem and reassure the worried patient or carer.” Emergency calls out of hours will continue to be handled by Devon Doctors and the South West Ambulance Service. But now the doctors, nurses and paramedics on duty can ring the Hospiscare nurse in appropriate cases.
“Doctors, nurses and other health care professionals have a lot of pressure overnight,” said Liz. “This is about Hospiscare offering our palliative expertise to help more patients by supporting our professional colleagues.”
The new service is to be trialled for six months.
