By Dr Joseph Hawkins, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Clinical lead for End of Life Care, Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust. Contributor- Mrs Susan Dargan Nurse consultant and lead CNS, nurse lead for End of Life Care, Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust. One of the initial concept drawings of the eternal garden […]
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At risk feeding?
By Dr Matthew Doré (Chair of Palliative Care Congress) and Dr Alan McPherson (Chair of The Regional Palliative Medicine Group) “I don’t want thickener!”, “I want to eat it, not down my RIG” or most commonly “I want my roast dinner and all the trimmings, not smooshed!” Sound familiar? There has been an ongoing debate […]
They told me not to go: Flat Holm Island, Wales
by Mark Taubert, Palliative Care Consultant, Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom Twitter: @ProfMarkTaubert A trip to a remote island with a derelict cholera hospital, to record a National Heritage Lottery funded audio podcast about pandemics, palliative care and isolation, inadvertently turns into an adventure. Flat Holm, or ‘Ynys Echni’, its Welsh name, is […]
Is equality over equity becoming a problem for the NHS?
By Dr Joseph Hawkins, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Clinical lead for End of Life Care, Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust. Twitter: @JoeHawk75825077 Britain is becoming a society of two peoples, the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick. A very similar sentiment to those words was written by Susan Sontag […]
A simple recipe for a beautiful dish- Training, Motivation and Expertise in palliative care in cancer:
By Denise Vacca1, Giampiero Porzio2, Raffaele Giusti3. 1U.O. Terapia del Dolore e Cure Palliative ASL Sulcis – Carbonia, Italy. 2Associazione Tumori Toscana, Home Care Service, Tuscany, Italy. 3Medical Oncology Unit, Sant’Andrea Hospital of Rome, Rome, Italy. Twitter account: @oncoblogger Giampiero Porzio M.D. while eating a perfect Italian meal: Birra & Panino! In Italy, […]
Do specialist palliative care teams really have better crystal balls?
Dr Natasha Wiggins, Consultant in palliative medicine and clinical lead for end of life at the Great Western Hospital NHS Trust @Dr_N_Wiggins Dr Ellen Haire, Wales Clinical Academic Track Fellow in Palliative Medicine, University of Cardiff @drellenhaire Picture: Ellen Haire (left) and Natasha Wiggins in a virtual meeting Google ‘crystal ball palliative care’ and […]
Welcome back to the department of rebrands
By Dr Joseph Hawkins, Consultant in Palliative medicine and end of life clinical lead, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital. Twitter: @JoeHawk75825077 So good to see you again. A true delight, a pleasure, I find myself overcome with delight at the sound of your voice. We failed to succeed in rebranding ‘Palliative care’ but I […]
Excuse my ethnicity: Research in a world where whiteness is the “norm”
Dr Yinting Ta, Palliative Medicine Registrar at St Joseph’s Hospice, London and APM Research & Ethics Committee Trainee Representative Surprise! No one likes bad surprises, but I’m afraid I have one here. Yen et al.’s recent paper on the improved prognostic accuracy of the combined use of the ‘surprise question’ and palliative care screening […]
Crossing the sea for preferred place of death
By Dr Ben Anderson, IMT2, Respiratory Department, Royal Bolton Hospital (Ben.anderson@doctors.org.uk) Co- Authors: Dr Rebecca Lennon, Palliative Care Department, Royal Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and Dr Rizwan Ahmed, Respiratory Department, Royal Bolton NHS Foundation Trust England and Northern Ireland (NI) are part of the United Kingdom. However, due to devolution, healthcare is organised separately […]
“A virtual friend”: Does artificial intelligence provide a solution to loneliness?
By Dr Matthew Doré, Palliative Care Consultant in NI Hospice and Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast, Chair of the PCC There are many differences between ‘real life’ and the virtual, or digital life (social media / internet personae / virtual projections). For me, one of the foremost is that our endearments and faults reside in […]