END OF life care from the Marie Curie hospice team can be delivered at home thanks to a nurse’s lightbulb moment at the height of the pandemic.
After being forced to change how care was delivered when the pandemic hit Angela Allsop, lead nurse at the Solihull hospice, decided to take the plunge and call for a hospice at home service to be offered to patients.
Angela said the nursing staff had to adapt their services to provide care for more patients and their families after the first lockdown hit last March.
This was the springboard for Angela and her team as she started putting forward plans to change the business plan to be able to offer hospice at home.
The Marie Curie Nursing Service already provided support during the night to those individuals needing night time care and carer respite.
But hospice at home offers hands on nursing care, symptom management, emotional and psychological support within the last four weeks of life.
After months of hard work bosses at the hospice gave Angela and her team the go ahead and the service officially started in January.
In the first month the service had more than 30 referrals for people living in Solihull and Birmingham.
Angela said: “We are going into patients homes and our team are reporting a huge sense of fulfilment in their roles in providing holistic care.
“Although the service has only been going a short time we have seen the impact that we are having from one visit or several visits to patients and their families.
“The team are rewarded by knowing that we have helped the patient to be able to stay at home to die, in their own home if that is their preferred place of care.
“This is truly special.”
The hospice at home service currently offers care to terminally ill patients and their loved ones seven days a week from 8am until 8pm.
Angela hopes to expand this to a 24 hour service.
