The Nursing Times reports that the Government’s cancer director, Professor Mike Richards, wants PCTs to fund 24 hour community nursing services to allow terminally-ill patients to die in their own homes or in a care home. The Government’s End of Life Care Strategy for England is to include the setting-up of fast-response nurse teams to undertake this care. With these measures, Professor Richards hopes that both patient suffering and unnecessary hospital admissions will be minimized. Click here to view the story on the Nursing Times website.

In a related story in the Manchester Evening News, Trafford GPs have called for long-term, chronically-ill patients to be given electronic monitors in their own homes to alert surgery staff to any changes in their condition, reducing the patient’s stay in hospital. Read more about this and other plans to improve health services in the Trafford area on the MEN website.

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