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Research indicates<br />
Gold Line works well<br />
Linda pushes<br />
boundaries<br />
New interim data is available for<br />
Gold Line – a 24/7 dedicated<br />
helpline offered from Airedale<br />
Hospital’s Telehealth Hub.<br />
Currently there are almost 1,000<br />
patients registered for the service<br />
who are thought to be approaching<br />
or in the last year of life. Around 30<br />
of these patients are also supported<br />
using telemedicine via a mini iPad to<br />
provide face-to-face consultations<br />
with a hub nurse.<br />
Gold Line was developed<br />
following a successful bid by<br />
Airedale NHS Foundation Trust<br />
to the Health Foundation Shared<br />
Purpose Project and was launched<br />
for patients with a GP in Airedale,<br />
Wharfedale and Craven Clinical<br />
Commissioning Groups (AWC<br />
CCG ) on 1 November 2013. It<br />
was extended to the Bradford area<br />
following funding from local CCGs<br />
from 1 March 2014.<br />
In AWC, from April-September<br />
2014, there were 941 calls from 350<br />
patients. From these, 77 percent<br />
were ‘out of hours’ (outside of 8am-<br />
6pm Monday-Friday) and 43 percent<br />
were dealt with without onward<br />
referral to any other service.<br />
From July-September 2014, Gold<br />
Line avoided 18 hospital admissions,<br />
20 attendances at A&E, 60 GP visits<br />
and 21 community nurse visits in<br />
AWC.<br />
From 2,209 calls between<br />
April-September 2014, 2,019<br />
patients stayed in their usual place<br />
of residence, 18 were admitted<br />
to hospital and eight directly to<br />
hospice, 44 advised to attend A&E<br />
and 120 were reported deaths.<br />
In AWC, the current caseload is<br />
almost 500 patients – 44 percent<br />
have cancer. Helen Livingstone,<br />
palliative care consultant at Airedale<br />
NHS Foundation Trust, said: “There<br />
are around 1,500 deaths per year<br />
in the area and so the caseload<br />
needs to be around 1,200 to help<br />
most people who have an expected<br />
death. We are gathering lots more<br />
data but it’s fairly early days.”<br />
An interim qualitative evaluation<br />
is currently being carried out by<br />
the University of Bradford, looking<br />
at patients’ and carers’ experience<br />
of Gold Line. It contains some very<br />
moving comments from patients<br />
including:<br />
“They’d obviously read the notes<br />
and they knew what was going<br />
on… Wonderful, so reassuring<br />
and comforting... It’s care and<br />
compassion, it’s not a system.”<br />
“When asked, around 60 percent<br />
of people would like to die at<br />
home, given the choice. Our figures<br />
suggest that deaths in hospital are<br />
14 percent for Gold Line patients<br />
compared to 31 percent for other<br />
local patients and 41 percent of<br />
Gold Line patients die at home,<br />
22 percent in care homes and 23<br />
percent in hospices.”<br />
An economic evaluation of Gold<br />
Line will be carried out by York<br />
University and is due to be published<br />
in summer 2015.<br />
Congratulations to palliative<br />
care consultant Dr Linda Wilson,<br />
above, who is named as one<br />
of five national ‘incredible<br />
colleagues’ in the Sue Ryder<br />
charity awards.<br />
She won the category<br />
‘Pushing the Boundaries’ for<br />
helping to set up the Gold Line<br />
service and received her award<br />
during a ceremony at the House<br />
of Commons.<br />
Linda said: “I was very<br />
humbled to be nominated by<br />
my team and very surprised<br />
to win. The Gold Line is the<br />
product of a team of exceptional<br />
people, from those who put the<br />
Health Foundation funding bid<br />
together to those involved in its<br />
development and the fabulous<br />
Hub team who deliver the<br />
service.”<br />
Donation of<br />
new furniture<br />
welcomed<br />
Airedale Hospital’s gynaecology<br />
assessment unit has received a<br />
donation of new furniture for its<br />
waiting room.<br />
The Friends of Airedale funded<br />
a dozen new chairs and a coffee<br />
table for patients waiting to be seen<br />
on the unit, part of ward 20 at the<br />
hospital.<br />
Shirley Smith, one of the staff<br />
nurses on the unit at Airedale NHS<br />
Foundation Trust, said: “We are so<br />
grateful to the charity for funding this<br />
new furniture for us. It makes such a<br />
huge difference to our patients to be<br />
able to wait in a nice environment.<br />
“The new chairs are a great<br />
improvement, previously we had an<br />
old sofa which was difficult to clean.<br />
The new furniture is so comfortable<br />
and wipes clean so it also helps us<br />
with infection prevention.”<br />
The early pregnancy unit at the<br />
hospital sees patients that are at risk<br />
of miscarrying or pregnant women<br />
with gynaecology problems.<br />
Pictured are, from left: Shirley<br />
Smith, staff nurse at Airedale NHS<br />
Foundation Trust, Bob Smithies,<br />
volunteer, Eileen Proud, chair of<br />
Friends of Airedale and Carole<br />
Smithies, volunteer.<br />
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