Palliative and End of Life Care

What is Supportive and Palliative Care?

Supportive and Palliative Care focuses on assessing the needs of patients and those close to them, to make sure what matters most to them is our priority too. The aim of palliative care is to maximise a person’s quality of life by treating and relieving symptoms. This can include physical symptoms such as pain or breathlessness, but we also know that illness can lead to psychological, practical and spiritual worries which we can help to address. Whether you are waiting for a diagnosis, undergoing curative treatment, have been told your health will not improve or are a patient continuing to live with your illness, we can support you.

 

Who are the Supportive and Palliative Care Team?

We are a team of healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals who have undergone specific training in this area. We can give advice and support for those patients whose needs require specialist input alongside the care provided by the teams on the wards. We work closely with your ward team, as they continue to co-ordinate your day-to-day care. When it comes to making important decisions about your future treatment options or place of care, we can guide you through these, aiming to make sure your wishes are fulfilled as much as possible.

We have close links with the hospital Chaplaincy Team, who can provide support, both emotionally and through your individual belief systems, including those of all faiths or none. We also provide support for patient’s loved ones.

We work closely with the Specialist Palliative Care Team in the community, so if you are to be discharged from hospital and need on-going support, we would inform them of your ongoing care plan.

 

When can I see someone from the Supportive and Palliative Care Team?

You need to be referred to our service by your ward team. Once you have been referred, we will review you at regular intervals based on how you are. The service is available seven days a week, including bank holidays, between 9am-5pm. If you need to speak to the team, please ask your ward nurse to contact the Supportive and Palliative Care Team.

Outside of these hours, urgent medical advice for supportive and palliative care is available through the advice line at Wirral Hospice St John’s. If the ward team looking after you feel they need specialist advice, they will contact the advice line directly.

 

Supportive Care Unit (SCU) on Ward 30

If the Supportive and Palliative Care Team and the ward team looking after you think you have specific needs that would be best managed primarily by the Supportive and Palliative Care Team, we may discuss the Supportive Care Unit with you.

The Supportive Care Unit includes some of the individual side rooms on Ward 30 in Arrowe Park Hospital, where care is coordinated by a Consultant in Palliative Medicine. Patients on the SCU are still able to have acute medical treatment such as is available on other hospital wards, but the primary focus is on improving your symptoms and quality of life.

 

Useful contacts

Palliative Care Team

0151 552 1892, Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm only. Please leave an answer phone message for any non-urgent queries.

Outside of these hours, your ward team can contact the Palliative Care Advice Line (PAIL).

 

Supportive Care Unit

Main switchboard 0151 678 5111 – please ask for Ward 30 to get through to the Supportive Care Unit