A new helpline has been launched for seriously-ill people who may be in the last year of their lives.

Support and advice will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The dedicated “Gold Line” phone number, launched at Airedale Hospital, aims to provide one point of contact for patients and carers to support them in their preferred place of care.

Hospital bosses said the pilot scheme was not designed to replace patients’ use of their GP and other community health services during normal working hours, but aimed to enhance their care when daytime services were closed.

Calls are answered by experienced nurses in the hospital’s Telehealth hub who are linked up to community-based teams, which can visit patients.

Doctors Helen Livingstone and Linda Wilson, palliative care consultants at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We know that these patients want to spend as much time at home as possible, and by providing extra support we hope the Gold Line will help this to happen. However, hospital admissions can also be arranged if required.”

Dr Ian Fenwick, a GP and the district’s clinical lead for cancer, said the new helpline would give patients and their carers quick and easy access to experienced nurses, who can offer advice and support and co-ordinate the most appropriate response to their needs.

The helpline has been launched across Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven after the hospital won a bid for £420,000 for a new project to use technology to improve care for patients at the end of their lives.

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust was one of nine health organisations chosen to gain an award from the Health Foundation, an independent charity, as part of its £4.6 million “Shared Purpose” programme.