Throughout a terminal illness

If you or the person you care for has been diagnosed with a life-limiting (terminal) illness, you will be given details of who to contact should an emergency situation occur by the health professionals caring for you.

At end of life

As you approach the end of life, you may receive palliative care in your own home, in a care home, in hospital or in a hospice. Should an emergency situation occur, your healthcare team will be available for support:

Hospital or hospice

The healthcare team will look after your care and respond to any situation that occurs.

Care home

The care home team will call upon the support of local health care professionals to help with any emergency that may occur.

Your own home

If you have made the decision to spend your last days at home, the health professionals who are looking after your care will give you contact details of who to call should an emergency occur. This could be your local GP, the Community Healthcare Team or OneCall at St Elizabeth Hospice:

Your GP will provide you with details of who to contact both within and out of hours.

The Suffolk Community Healthcare Team coordinate the bulk of their services from the Care Coordination Centre (CCC), in Ipswich. This operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

• suffolkcommunithhealthcare.co.uk – The Care Coordination Centre Tel: 0300 123 2425

St Elizabeth Hospice have an advice phone line (OneCall) to support everyone in their catchment area. It is available 24 hours, 7 days a week for patients, families, carers and healthcare professionals.

• stelizabethhospice.org.uk – 24 Hour advice OneCall Tel: 0800 567 0111

NHS 111

If you need urgent medical help or advice you can call NHS 111 anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. By calling 111 you will speak to a trained advisor. You will be asked a series of questions to assess your symptoms and be given the help you need.

You can also access NHS 111 online:

• 111.nhs.uk

999 and emergency department services

Please call 999 or go to your hospital’s emergency department (A&E) in a life-threatening emergency only.