End of Life Care Project Survey Results

The pandemic has proven that it is more important than ever for people to think about dying, talk about it and plan for it. During this week, Dying Matters Awareness, has focused on the importance of being 'in a good place to die’.

As an ambulance service we have a role to play in delivering high quality care at the end of life. An End of Life Care (EoLC) patient experience survey was undertaken during 2019/20 to obtain feedback from patients and/or their representatives who had contacted the Trust to support EoLC.

Here's a few headlines from the survey:

• Ambulance staff were rated as being ‘very professional’ (98.8%) and able to demonstrate care and compassion (97.7%), treating the patient with dignity and respect.  

• Approximately 98.0% of respondents rated the explanation of the patient’s treatment and care as being ‘easy to understand’ and they felt involved to at least ‘some extent’ in the decisions made regarding care.

• 8% of respondents rated the handling of their emergency telephone call as being ‘acceptable,’ and 79.8% of respondents felt that the length of time they waited for the ambulance service to arrive either ‘met’ or ‘exceeded’ their expectations.

An infographic showing the results from the survey is available here.

The results highlighted variation in relation to the availability of anticipatory/’just in case’ drugs and the preferred priorities of care documents (such as ReSPECT, Advance Care Planning and ‘Do not attempt resuscitation’) which were not in place for all patients.

The results to this survey were discussed and shared with the Trust’s Clinical Lead for EoLC and the Research Team. Since the survey was undertaken, EoLC education training sessions have been facilitated by our hospice partners, with further sessions planned this year.

Published 14th May 2021