Hospitals warned end-of-life care crisis threatening treatment

According to a group of regional NHS leaders, an increasing number of end-of-life patients in hospitals could influence the quality of care this winter. During an online internal meeting of health executives in Sussex, a consultant in palliative care outlined the looming crisis, a video of which has been seen by the BBC. When some patients are expected to receive end-of-life care in A&E corridors, the consultant at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust described the dilemmas facing hospital administrators. The bleak analysis is likely to be repeated in other NHS regions as winter storms increase the challenge of finding hospital beds for sick patients in need of medical attention.

Worthing Hospital, Royal Sussex County Hospital, St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath are among the University Hospitals Sussex Trust's. Doctors and officials from East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which includes Conquest Hospital in Hastings and Eastbourne District General Hospital, as well as community health representatives, attended the meeting. At the meeting, which took place on November 4th, the consultant gave a slide presentation entitled

Palliative and End of Life Care in Sussex. She told the audience that local hospices were struggling and that finding patients who need end-of-life services was difficult, and that when people were sent home, it was often unclear how much money there is in the local community.

I am really worried that patients with chronic illnesses are not going to be able to enter hospital and be treated because there are so many end-of-life patients in hospital beds.

We are no longer putting patients on the waiting list for transfer who are just straightforward death,

she continued, focusing only on those with particular needs. The consultant's recommendation for enhanced palliative care in A&E was a very difficult choice - whether you accept them for corridor care or turn them around, or put them in the ambulance's back of the ambulance, where they could die on the way home.

Hundreds of patients in hospital don't have to be there, and a number of patients with complex needs who don's not have their needs met,

she said. We've all known this crisis is coming, she said.

'Under significant pressure'

Patients will be ensuring that patients have access to the

best possible, high-quality palliative, and end-of-life care,

according to a spokesperson for the NHS in Sussex.

This includes providing a variety of services for compassionate, person-centred care, and, in some cases, in settings outside of hospitals, such as community settings, and our hospices.

Emergency care services in Sussex are still under significant pressure, but staff continue to work to ensure patients receive the care they need at our hospitals and throughout all of our health and care services.

Over the winter period, there has been a lot of collaboration to help individual care initiatives and ensure that people are enrolled in the right NHS service for their needs.

Delayed discharges were a significant issue across the NHS, according to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, and a lack of social or community care could mean that some patients needing end-of-life care and assistance are unlikely to leave hospitals. The college's president, Ian Higginson, expressed worry about the number of patients who need end-of-life care who end up in ambulance and then hospitals because the hospital's specific services are not available.

Patients who would like to be at home may end up in our corridors, which are not the right places for anyone, particularly those who are nearing the end of their lives.

In addition, community services are also stretched, and hospices are alert of a funding crisis.

We know just how hard workers in the NHS and care system are working to give people at the end of life the care they so richly deserve.

While hospitals may be the right location for some, a crowded ward isn't necessarily the right place for the majority of people who die. "Hospices around the country want to provide more services to the families in the community, but this year, funding constraints have cut it back. And hospitals are also suffering from the knock-on effect.