Many people in Worcestershire require general palliative care and others suffer from life threatening illnesses and need specialist palliative care. St Richard’s is able to ensure that patients can choose where they wish to be treated and where they wish to die. It means that patients can be cared for in a hospice rather than being inappropriately admitted to an acute hospital where there is an ethos of curing the patient rather than ensuring they have the best quality of life.

The Specialist Palliative Care nurse will care for patients in the In-patient Unit who stay anywhere between 8-14 days with approximately 60% needing end of life care whilst others are discharged back to their homes or to an appropriate area of care. We recently extended and refurbished our In-patient unit which will enable our bed availability to increase by 36% planning to eliminate the requirement for a waiting list and will also mean we will be able to care for 60 more patients per annum.