The ambulance crew who were part of the first dedicated palliative care ambulance service in Tayside
The Tayside project, which was launched in October 2005, introduced seven initiatives to support patient choice at the end of life.
These initiatives included a dedicated ambulance service; discharge liaison nurse; support workers for carers; increased provision of respite care; palliative care education and training; improved community and out-of-hours care; and a palliative care register.
Following the project’s conclusion in August 2009, NHS Tayside has secured long-term funding for the Palliative Care Ambulance, a dedicated transport service which enables patients nearing the end of their lives to be cared for in their place of choice.
The project was cited in Scotland’s Living and Dying Well Action Plan (published in October 2008) as an example of good practice in the planning and delivery of care for patients with palliative and end of life care needs.
In December 2009, Lancaster University published its independent evaluation of the project’s three initiatives – palliative care education and training; the ambulance service; and planned nursing respite care for non-cancer patients.
As the programme’s first project in Scotland, Tayside provided a challenging mix of rural and urban, affluent and deprived areas, to test the programme’s models of service delivery. With a population of 400,000 covering an area of 300 square miles, the region’s relative rural prosperity is in contrast with areas of high deprivation in the city of Dundee.
Click here for initiatives introduced by the Tayside project.
