[Open readmission. A service to patients with incurable cancer]

The Open readmission programme is a service to patients with incurable cancer. It allows the patients and their family to contact our department at any time if medical assistance is needed. Each patient is allocated a primary nurse who has the main responsibility for his on her particular case. The nurse has been delegated the responsibility to evaluate the need for admission to hospital, and to arrange it. If acute hospitalization is needed a nurse at the department is contacted and an ambulance is sent. The patient is admitted without any primary examination by an emergency service unit or a practising physician. The patients are not delayed in the emergency room, but are directly transferred to a clinical ward. The nurses are responsible for administering the programme, and the physician notes the admission in the medical records. The Open readmission programme has been a success in the way it has been practised at our department, and meets the needs of patients and relatives for greater security and confidence that they will receive help.