Hastings-Quinte paramedics will soon be assisting palliative patients in a bid to allow them to stay in their home rather than go to hospital emergency.
All the full-time and part-time paramedics with the Hastings-Quinte Paramedic Services will undertake training later this month in the Essential Approach to Palliative Care course.
Chief of Paramedic Services Doug Socha says a recent study in Nova Scotia showed good results.
Socha continued, “Paramedics will be trained in a wide variety of medical emergencies. A local study completed by the Palliative Care Network showed a gap in service for these types of patients. We were contacted as a potential service that could help address some of those gaps.”
The Service will be working with Belleville and Quinte West Community Health Centre to deliver the service this spring.
He said, “What’s different in this course is there is a greater understanding about the palliative care patient. It’s really understanding what options they have, looking at their treatment and their disease that they have, working with their family and their caregivers to understand more in depth around those conditions.
We have knowledge on emergency medicine so it’s trying to expand specifically into the palliative care side and try to keep these patients at home.”
Socha explained that when they do go to the emergency room “they tend to be not so high a priority, not as acute as other patients…it’s a challenge how often they’re seen, how long they are waiting when really they want to be at home and die with dignity.”
Palliative programs for paramedics are being held Canada-wide with two in Ontario plus the one in the Hastings-Quinte area.
The Local Health Integration Network provided $81,000 for the training session.
