Patients in the community often need the same type of specialist palliative care as we provide in the hospice but want to get on with their lives with a little help from others.
This is where the Community Specialist Palliative Care Team can help, by providing expertise on the issues that arise as the result of being unwell. They work with the GPs and District Nurses to achieve good symptom control. A new team providing specialist palliative care in Brent North is being built from scratch to provide this service. Under St Luke's management, and part-funded by the Brent PCT, a team leader, administrator, nurse specialist, doctor, and Social worker. They will work closely with the hospice's established services to provide palliative care at home and enhance the patients' quality of life.
The team is based at St Luke's and expects to recruit a further nurse specialist very soon, thus bringing the total number of staff up to six. The team has already taken on a caseload of patients who are benefiting from visits, professional support and liaison with the In-patient Unit and day care facilities.
This is an exciting development for the team specifically, and St Luke's, as it provides another piece of the puzzle as we develop our patient care services here. It also provides valuable opportunities for multi-disciplinary communication, which will undoubtedly be of benefit to our patients' well-being and care.