Palliative Care At Home

We aim to ensure patients can be supported when they need it but also where they would like to be supported. With that in mind, as well as our inpatient care at the hospice, we also provide high quality, compassionate care for patients with life-limiting illness in their own homes across our catchment area. Patients are referred to us by their GP surgery.

We provide this support in three different but connected ways.

Our specialist Community Palliative Care team

Our specialist team visit patients in their own home to offer symptom control, social support, psychological support, equipment, access to nursing support, as well as advanced care planning.

‘Advanced care planning’ is the way our specialist team support patients to plan their future care. They do this by putting together a plan with the patient for other healthcare professionals to inform decisions about their medical care. This can include information about how a patient would prefer to be cared for as well as their end of life wishes. Our team always supports someone to die at home if that is what they would prefer.

This support is available Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm.

Our Hospice at Home team

We know that a problem at 11am which might be easily resolved can quickly turn into a crisis at 11pm without appropriate support. This is why we provide our ‘Hospice at Home’ service in the evenings and during the night.

This service supports patients with complex symptoms who might be approaching the end of their life. For example, the service can help prevent a patient being admitted to our hospice or to hospital, or they might facilitate a discharge home from hospital. 

Sometimes the service can simply provide peace of mind that a trained nurse can attend at night if needed. Should this be required, we will have an initial phone call with a patient or their carer to assess the patient. Where appropriate, a registered nurse will then make a home visit during the night to further assess and treat the patient. We aim to arrive within 30 minutes although we often arrive sooner.

In case of emergency during the night, please contact our Hospice at Home service on 01264 835288.

Our Home Care team

Our Home Care service is designed to support patients at the end of their lives who would like to die at home but who might be facing delays being discharged from hospital or perhaps be at risk of being admitted to hospital.

The team operates seven days a week between 8am and 8.30pm, visiting patients up to three times a day, depending on their needs. Patients who are cared for under the Home Care team are eligible for fast-track funding, so it is not means-tested and has no cost implications to patients.

To find out more, please get in touch.