Paramedics and hospice staff have teamed up in a project which is one of the first of its kind in England.
Staff at the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) and St Helena Hospice have initiated an innovative scheme to integrate the skills of emergency and end of life care.
The crossover roles see paramedics operating in the hospice, marking one of the first arrangements of its kind in England.
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A trio of paramedics are rotating between the ambulance service and St Helena Hospice's SinglePoint service - a round-the-clock helpline and rapid response service catering to those receiving end of life care at home throughout north east Essex.
Paramedics use their unique skill set, which includes patient assessment and diagnostics along with immediate on-site wound care.
The new duty-sharing set-up allows for the sharing of skills and expertise between both organisations.
The roles are primarily centered on aiding patients nearing the end of life to receive appropriate help while respecting their decision to remain at home, and negating the need for hospital admission where unnecessary.
Nicky Coombes, hospice in the home matron at St Helena, said: "For our patients, it's keeping them in a place where they want to be cared for and giving them support so they can remain at home and are less likely to be conveyed to hospital."
The arrangement also gives the paramedics a unique opportunity to enhance their professional skills by engaging with end of life patients and their families.
One paramedic working within the partnership, Scott O'Rourke, said: “During the day shifts on my roster, I come into the hospice and I'm based out of SinglePoint, doing patient assessments and assistance and trying to help keep people at home.
"And then during my night shifts, I work for the ambulance service on either a rapid response car or on an emergency ambulance as a paramedic going to a wide range of calls.
"This allows me to keep up all of my chronic and acute assessment and treatment skills. "
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