By Dr Joseph Hawkins, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Clinical lead for end of life care, Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust. A New Year Resolution. Sparklers shine, smoke all around, Fireworks leap as corridors fill Manager’s myopically seeing only the bill, Desperate searching, no solution to be found. The hospital is burning down. […]
Latest articles
The Palliative Times Special Festive Edition.
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 93 year old celebrates third resurrection. Doris (93), recently celebrated with all 24 of her next of kin after a week of not eating and drinking. ‘They keep saying I’m going […]
Creation of a new palliative care ward-a one year retrospective.
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 […]
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 […]
Poem: My bubble
By Dr Joseph Hawkins, Consultant in Palliative medicine and end of life clinical lead, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital. Twitter: @JoeHawk75825077 My bubble Living in a bubble isn’t so bad The view may be different looking out but then, Who says that what you see is Really me? I only have your word […]
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 […]