21 October 2025

We are proud to be part of a new service that is helping people be at home or in their usual care home in the last days of life.

The Emergency End of Life Response Team (EELRT) is a collaboration between Queen Alexandra Hospital (QAH), Rowans Hospice, and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight NHS Foundation Trust. The service supports patients at QAH and our local community in the last days of life, helping them remain in or return to their preferred place of care whether that’s at home or their usual care home.

Dr Sarah Russell, Consultant Nurse and End of Life Care Lead at Queen Alexandra Hospital, said: “In the last days of life, being able to stay in or return to your preferred place of care can make all the difference. The collaboration between the organisations that make up the EELRT service is making that possible. In our first month we are already seeing the benefits, with patients being able to stay at or return home.”

The service works in three simple ways:

Call Before Convey - the community EELRT service offers immediate advice to enable people to be cared for at home or their usual care home, rather than being taken to hospital.

Rapid Discharge Home - the hospital EELRT service rapidly assesses and coordinates care so that people can return home or to their usual care home.  

Hospice at Home Team - provides 24-hour advice, support or visits enabling people to be at home or their usual care home.

In the first four weeks, 20 patients met the EELRT criteria (18 in hospital, 2 at home). Ten people were able to return to or stay at home. This was the equivalent of 47 days spent at home rather than in hospital.

One of the first people to benefit from the service was 99-year-old Mary (pseudonym). After a fall at home, Mary was admitted to hospital with a chest infection and a brain bleed. When her family shared that her greatest wish was to die peacefully at home with her beloved dog, the EELRT and hospital palliative care team stepped in.

Within just 30 minutes, Mary’s assessment was complete. With the help of The Rosemary Foundation, district nurses, ward staff and a private ambulance, she was safely home six hours later. The following day, district nurses recorded: “Mary was lying comfortably in bed, alongside her dog who dotes on her, and vice versa.” Mary passed away peacefully at home a few days later.

Dr Mary Parkes, Palliative Care Doctor, Rowans Hospice, said: “For me it has been about connecting all the dots and by valuing the expertise of the different hospital and community teams to make sure our plans turn into reality…enabling people to be where they want, with whom they want, in the last days of life.”