What is Hospice@Home?
Hospice@Home is part of the vision of St Leonard’s to take our 25 years of experience, skills and high-quality care into the community, and to provide ’hands-on’ palliative care to patients in their own home.
We work alongside the other professional staff who are responsible for the patients’ essential care.
Hospice@Home will be offered, if it is appropriate, when patients
- want to be discharged from the hospital or hospice to die at home
- are having difficulties at home and do not want to be admitted to an acute hospital bed
- are having difficulties and are waiting for a Hospice bed need extra care and support at the end of life.
About Hospice@Home care
The Hospice@Home team will provide nursing care and advice. Hospice@Home does not replace the care that a primary care team gives a patient.
We work very closely with GPs, Consultants, District Nurses and Community Specialist Nurses to add our own skills to the care that patients receive. All the professionals who are involved in a patient’s treatment and care communicate regularly to discuss and plan what help would be best.
Our Hospice@Home team is made up of our experienced staff. The Hospice@Home Service is managed by a Senior Sister who is supported by a team of Registered Nurses and Care Assistants who have hospice or palliative care training and who have all completed specific training to equip them for Hospice@Home work.
What happens when a patient is referred to Hospice@Home?
When a patient is referred to Hospice@Home by a GP or Consultant, our Hospice@Home Senior Sister or Staff Nurse will visit to talk to the patient and their family or carer about the illness and how everyone is coping.
This information helps us to assess what the patient needs and to decide if they would benefit from our Hospice@Home service. The Hospice@Home Senior Sister or Staff Nurse may also consult the other professionals who are involved in the patient’s care to discuss how best we can help.
If our Hospice@Home service can help, we put everything in place as soon as possible; of course, the amount of support we are able to give will depend on the demand for this service at the time.
Hospice@Home care, like all St Leonard's Hospice services, is free to patients and to their family or carer
