Fife specialist palliative care service

What we do

The specialist palliative care service comprises a multi-disciplinary team of clinicians who can support patients with more complex needs or where specialist input is required. They provide in-patient hospice care, hospital support team, community specialist nurses and seven day community out-reach services.

Clinical Nurse Specialists/Advanced Nurse Practitioners

A patient’s first contact will usually be with one of our Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) or Advanced Nurse Practitioners. These are nurses with advanced knowledge of pain and symptom management to improve the quality of life for people who are living with any life-limiting illness. During consultations they can offer advice on pain and symptom control as well as emotional, psychological and spiritual support. They work closely with the local district nursing and hospital ward teams to provide a unified palliative care service for you at home or in hospital. They also provide support and training to local care home, primary care and hospital ward teams. They are supported by the palliative care medical team who advise on complex situations of symptom management.

Fife specialist palliative care community outreach team

The community outreach team provide an enhanced range of clinical and care interventions for people who have complex palliative care needs in their own homes, care homes and community hospital beds. These interventions include planned and urgent clinical assessments and monitoring of complex physical, psychological, spiritual and practical status, and personal care where the person’s care needs cannot be met by their families/informal carers and where other agencies are unable to provide this.

Hospital Support Team

The Team is multi-disciplinary and works closely with the clinical teams managing patient’s care whilst they are in Hospital. They assist with complex symptom management, complex discharge planning and next step meetings.

Hospice

The Victoria Hospice is a purpose built specialist in-patient unit with the grounds of Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy which has 8 beds. The Hospice is surrounded by a landscaped and sensory garden.

People are usually admitted initially for a period of assessment. This allows the team to look at how we might be able to improve the person's symptoms, perhaps by altering medications. Some people will then go home again or if home is no longer suitable, another care setting may be considered. End of life care will be offered to those patients who are in the last days of their life. Patients and the people important to them are updated on a regular basis and involved in all decisions about their care.

People in the Hospice are looked after by a team of health care professionals, comprising doctors, nurses, counsellors, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dieticians and pharmacists who are specialists in palliative care. A healthcare chaplain can provide spiritual care and support to Hospice patients and their loved ones.

Complementary Therapies are also offered. The Hospice has nursing and medical students who, with your permission, may participate in your care.

Patients are asked to bring in their own medicines with them on the day of admission to the Hospice - this helps the doctors and the medicines may be used during admission.