Help is just a phone call away: After-hours support for palliative care patients wishing to die at home

The 24-hour support for palliative patients is the gold standard of health care in Australia. However, in the state of Tasmania after-hours telephone support was spatially fragmented and inequitable. In 2014, hospice@HOME, a pilot programme introduced in Tasmania in that year, implemented a state-wide after-hours palliative care support service—1800HOSPICE—offering 24-hour support, 7 days a week for palliative patients, caregivers and the public. Six months of after-hours call logs in combination with additional patient data, were analysed to evaluate the use and wider implications of a state-wide after-hours palliative care support number. Family and caregivers mainly used the after-hours support to request changes to support services (25.1%), report changes in patients' overall condition (23.6%) and request acute medical assistance (16.2%). Through the use of the after-hours services by all individuals involved in the care, end-of-life patients were able to reduce ambulance contact and emergency department admission, and thereby increase their likelihood of dying at home (for patients whose preference was to die at home). Overall, 24-hour palliative care telephone support was found to be a valuable tool for all individuals involved in the care of end-of-life patients.