Palliative and End of Life care

Palliative and end of life care at ESNEFT

Our team gives support to patients who have a life-limiting or life-threatening condition and also to their families.

Our service includes:

• management of pain
• management of other symptoms
• psychological support
• social support
• spiritual support.

Our service

We can help support you and your  family to try and achieve the best possible quality of life.

Although palliative care does include end of life care, many elements of palliative care are provided earlier in the course of the illness (alongside other treatments).  For example, we may be involved in your treatment if you have a cancer diagnosis even though your cancer treatment is aiming for a cure.  The support we give will be based on your individual needs.

We work with the medical team who are managing your conditions – we do not completely take over your care from them.  We also work with other teams in the hospital such as the chaplains, occupational therapists and discharge planning teams.

We work closely with the local services at St Elizabeth Hospice and St Helena Hospice to make sure you have support after you have left our hospitals.

If you are an inpatient, the staff on your ward will contact us to come and see you.

There is a consultant on-call 24 hours a day so that doctors and nurses can get specialist advice.

You or a relative can also contact us directly by phone.