Adult palliative and end of life care services
Your directory to local adult services and support.
A free phone service available to patients, relatives, friends and all healthcare professionals. Providing specialist advice and support to those with life limiting illnesses. The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Dial 111 and select option 4 for 'Palliative and End of Life Care'.
Explaining the difference between palliative and end of life care.
Locally there are two hospices; Sue Ryder at Thorpe Hall and Arthur Rank Hospice.
We have a bereavement directory with local support and services.
Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council have information about end of life care.
Support is available from Grief Kind Spaces, Arthur’s Shed and Ormiston Families Stars.
Local pharmacies that stock anticipatory medicines.
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Below you'll find information on different local and national organisations and charities who can help you in a range of areas.
Hospices offer a wide variety of services, which may include:
A hospice can have other services too, to meet the specific needs of their local community.
For example, a hospice could have a transition lead to help young people move into adult hospice services, or an inclusion lead to reach out to people in the community who could really benefit from hospice care, but wouldn’t normally come forward. They may also offer music and art therapy sessions.
What services does a hospice offer? | Hospice UK
Local care is provided by Arthur Rank Hospice and Sue Ryder Hospice.
ReSPECT stands for Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment. The ReSPECT process creates a personalised recommendation for your clinical care in emergency situations where you are not able to make decisions or express your wishes.
Learn more about ReSPECT on the Resuscitation Council UK's website.
An Advance Care Plan can guide your family, carers and healthcare professionals at a time when you may be too sick to make or communicate decisions. It can help to convey your wishes for later in life, and it can reassure those around you that they are caring for you in the way that you want.
Sue Ryder has a great page on their website with lots of information about advance care plans.
Healthwatch Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is your local health and social care champion. From Tydd St Giles to Linton and everywhere in between, they make sure NHS leaders and other decision makers hear your voice and use your feedback to improve care.
They are here to listen to what you like about services and what you think could be improved. Find out more on their website https://www.healthwatchcambridgeshire.co.uk/
There are a few national charities that offer support and guidance on talking to children about death and dying.
Below is a list of local and national charities wish might be able to help you:
The Ambitions framework was developed by a partnership of national organisations across the statutory and voluntary sectors. It sets out NHS England's vision to improve end of life care through partnership and collaborative action between organisations at local level throughout England.
National palliative and end of life care (PEoLC) aims and objectives align to the Ambitions for palliative and end of life care national framework and further information is available on the Future NHS PEoLC Network. To request access, email: england.palliativeandendoflife@nhs.net
There is also an Ambitions catalogue available via Health Education England, which hosts all of the Ambitions Partnership publications.
The Palliative Care Hub is here to help people facing life-limiting illnesses, their family/friends, and health and social care professionals to access the support they need, when they need it. To contact the hub dial 111 and then choose option 4.
Palliative care describes the support and guidance that people with an incurable condition can access. It is provided to help guide them, their family and friends with ongoing treatment, symptom management and any care needs. It also helps focus on the needs and wishes of the individual, when they are at the end of their life. Palliative care can also be called supportive care, and is managed by specialists who are experienced and enable people to feel heard, and to guide appropriate discussions.
It may include:
Palliative care is to enable people to live well for the rest of their life, with an emphasis on their priorities for care to the very end of their life and beyond. Palliative care is often thought to be about caring for the dying, but it is also focused on making each person's wishes matter through holistic, patient-centred care.
A diagnosis of a limiting illness means that some people can live well for many years, and some may live a much shorter time. Other descriptions for palliative care include 'terminal' or 'advanced disease' and as these words suggest, it is also important to consider what you want to happen next, and in the future. This is called Advanced Care Planning.
The Palliative Care Hub offers support and guidance. All the nurses on the call-line, are specialists in palliative care and are here to help with advice on matters such as symptom management and quality of life. The Hub will signpost you to community services that are available. Most importantly the Hub nurses are also at the end of the phone to listen, and support you when needed.
The service is for anyone living in Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Royston including The Fens, Huntingdonshire and Wisbech.
The Hub nurses are here to discuss anything that is causing you concern or worry. Please do not hesitate to contact the Hub if you need to talk to someone. If they cannot directly help you, you will be signposted to an appropriate service.
The service is available for patients but also for anyone that has contact with, or is supporting someone who has a palliative condition, including health and social care professionals.
You do not have to be under the care of a hospice team to be able to access the Palliative Care Hub. If you do contact the Hub, your needs will be assessed by the nurse; any referral to a hospice would be carefully considered and agreed with you, or someone able to consider this for you, if you are unwell. The Hub is a phone service providing a gateway to other support, including possible hospice care if this is needed.
You can call any time. The palliative care hub is a 24 hour service. If the service is busy or unavailable for any reason the call will be answered by the main 111 service. Calls to the service are free of charge.
Is this only for people over a certain age?
The Palliative Care Hub is available to all adults aged 18 and over across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
The service is available for people who have been diagnosed with a progressive or life- limiting illness. This can include dementia, heart failure, respiratory failure, neurological conditions, and more.
The Palliative Care Hub is accessible to anyone that needs to access support and advice in the community, when living with a progressive disease.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICS' Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy 2022-26 can be found on our website.
Your views and experiences are important to us, and if you have questions, feedback, compliments, concerns or complaints about local NHS funded services, we want to hear from you. Visit out Patient Experience Team for more information.
Managing symptoms, including pain, is an important part of end of life care. Each person will have different symptoms, depending on their condition and the kind of treatment they may be having.
Symptoms can include feeling and being sick, constipation, loss of appetite and pain. Your doctor and nurses will help you manage your symptoms and feel as comfortable as possible.
Not everyone approaching the end of life has pain. If you do, your doctor or nurse will assess the pain and decide on a suitable medicine and the correct dose to manage it.
They'll ask you questions about the pain.
These might include:
If you have trouble speaking, they may use a different method, like a visual chart or picture cards, or ask your family and carers.
If you're not able to communicate at all, there are other signs that can show you might be in pain, such as grimacing, groaning, changes in breathing and refusing to eat.
The doctor or nurse will sometimes ask the palliative care team to advise them.
The NHS website has a very helpful page about managing pain and other symptoms during end of life care.