HUNDREDS of patients a year in Wiltshire repeatedly admitted to A&E in the last three months of life.

Every year, hundreds of patients in Wiltshire are repeatedly admitted to A&E in the last months of their life, according to new figures.

New findings from Public Health England revealed that 290 people in the NHS Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group area were admitted to an emergency ward three times or more in the 90 days before they died in 2018.

Of the 290 people, 53 per cent (155) were aged 75 or over and made up 6.2 per cent of all deaths in the NHS Wiltshire CCG area – below the national average of 7.5 per cent.

Gill May, director of nursing and quality for B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire CCG: “One of the key priorities for the B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership is to help everyone in our area to age well while at the same time ensuring our hospitals, GPs, social care providers and other health and care professionals work together in a joined-up way to avoid unnecessary trips to hospital for everyone.”

The Rapid Response End-of-Life service at Great Western Hospital, Swindon provides specialist care for people approaching the end of their lives and works to ensure patients remain as comfortable as possible.

This service includes helping with individual wishes and how they want to spend their final days are met.

Gill added: “The service has successfully helped to speed up the time it takes for patients to be discharged and sent home.

“Similar services are currently being planned in Wiltshire and B&NES.”