Ambulance transport to hospital in patients with a palliative ambulance management plan.

The palliative ambulance management plan (AMP) is a document that assists paramedics in the acute care of patients with life-limiting illness. We retrospectively examined ambulance attendances for 111 patients with an AMP in the Hutt Valley, New Zealand. Ambulances attended 46 patients on 67 occasions with 40% transported to an acute hospital. Transport preferences were followed in 70% of attendances and 48% of transports to the hospital. Although uncontrolled symptoms were the most common indications for ambulance attendance, most of these attendances did not result in transport to hospital. AMPs provide paramedics with the ability to recognise a patient's wishes to remain at home and provide care that can enable this.