The Sun’s Deborah James helps launch new tool to make dying less traumatic
THE Sun’s Deborah James has helped launch a new online tool for people who are dying to share their wishes around treatment and care.
MyCMC lets patients take control of what happens in an emergency, such as whether they would want to be resuscitated or if they wish to die at home.
The NHS scheme, an abbreviation of My Co-ordinate My Care, enables details to be shared between care providers such as 111, out-of-hours GPs and paramedics.
Other details can include emergency contacts, a patient’s cultural or spiritual beliefs, whether they wish to donate their organs and whether they have a pet that needs to be cared for.
Stage four bowel cancer patient and Things Cancer Made Me Say columnist Deborah James has thrown her support behind the tool for the chronically ill and those nearing death.
She said: “Facing up to an incurable illness is difficult to accept.
“But we need to engage with death, and part of that means making decisions about how you might want to die at home, or in a hospice.
“With myCMC, people such as myself can plan for what might happen in the future.
“It means being in control. It means that, with discussions with my consultant, I can make decisions that help me and my family, and I can get on with living.”
We need to engage with death, and part of that means making decisions about how you might want to die
Deborah James
The Health Secretary Matt Hancock has also backed the move, saying: “I’m a huge believer in improving the way we provide care for people through the smart use of technology.
“The best innovations are often brilliantly simple and Co-ordinate My Care is an example which shows the difference the NHS can make to people’s lives when they need it most.
“I want to see improvements across health and care, and more technology like this can help tailor healthcare to individuals and help us fulfil the ambition of the NHS Long Term Plan to move to more person-first care.”
1 in 5 plan to die in hospital
Patients can start their own CMC plan online, in their own time and in their own home.
Once they have finished, they can book an appointment with their GP or nurse, who can add clinical details and upload the plan so that it can be shared with health professionals.
Research on almost 70,000 CMC plans from London – the plan on which the new service is based – found that fewer than one in five people with a plan died in hospital.
Around half of all deaths tend to occur in hospital.
Professor Julia Riley, the clinical lead for CMC and palliative care consultant at the Royal Marsden, said: “CMC came about after I saw the way in which my sister-in-law was cared for when she died.
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“She wanted to die at home, but out-of-hours providers insisted she went to hospital.
“It would have been better if urgent care providers had known about her wishes in advance.
“That is why we developed CMC, which has helped thousands share their treatment wishes.”
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