Older people strongly back NAS led Pathfinder service

Older people who benefitted from the National Ambulance Service (NAS) led service Pathfinder have strongly backed the programme.

The service is designed to safely keep older people who phone 112/999 in their own home rather than taking them to a hospital emergency department.

A service evaluation of patient and carer feedback after Pathfinder responded to their emergency calls resulted in very positive observations.

The evaluation appears in a paper prepared by Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) qualitative researchers and co-authored by the Beaumont Hospital Pathfinder team.

An extract of the paper was published earlier this year in the prestigious US journal Prehospital Emergency Care. It was titled: "Older people want to be in their own homes": a service evaluation of patient and carer feedback after Pathfinder responded to their emergency calls

This paper describes feedback following Pathfinder intervention and reports an overwhelmingly positive experience for patients and their carers.

Find out more by clicking here.