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Your questions
Here you will find answers to some of the questions you may have about hospice and palliative care.
Click on one of these questions:
What services are included in hospice care?
Where is hospice or palliative care provided?
Who provides hospice or palliative care?
Where is my local hospice or palliative care service?
Is hospice or palliative care provided in other countries?
Are hospices for adults only?
How can I be referred to a hospice or palliative care service?
Can I choose where I am referred?
Will I have to pay?
Are hospices religious places?
How did hospices start?
What services are included in hospice care?
Hospices provide a range of services which differs from place to place. You can expect to find some, if not all, of the following:
- skilled medical care provided by doctors and nurses who are specially trained in pain and symptom control and in giving emotional support to patients and their carers
- care at home
- care in a bedded unit - hospice, hospital or palliative care centre
- a day hospice providing social and creative opportunities, as well as assessment and treatment, sometimes including complementary therapies
- support for friends, family and children including practical advice and counselling
- spiritual support
- physiotherapy
- lymphoedema service (lymphoedema is a form of chronic swelling)
- respite care to give carers a break
- sitting service for patients at home
- bereavement support.
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Where is hospice or palliative care provided?
Hospice or palliative care may be provided:
- at home (with support from specially trained staff)
- in a hospice or palliative care centre
- in a hospital or nursing home
- in a day hospice.
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Who provides hospice or palliative care?
- GPs and district nurses
- medical and nursing staff in hospitals and nursing homes
Many people, however, need more specialist help . This can be provided by:
- a charitable hospice
- a NHS Palliative Care Unit
- Macmillan nurses
- Marie Curie nurses
- Hospital Palliative Care Team (or Support or Symptom Control Team)
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Where is my local hospice or palliative care service?
We publish a list of hospices in the UK and Ireland and can help you to find hospices overseas. To find a hospice in the UK click here and to find out more about hospices overseas click here.
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Is hospice or palliative care provided in other countries?
Yes. There are now hospice and palliative care initiatives throughout the world. hospice information has links with overseas services in almost 100 countries and publishes international directories to help patients and carers identify and access local support, which may be useful for those who want to return to their home country, or to arrange a holiday abroad. To find out more about hospice and palliative care overseas, click here.
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Are hospices for adults only?
Hospice services are for adults and children. Most adults receiving hospice care will have cancer although increasingly people with other life-threatening illnesses, like Multiple Sclerosis or Motor Neurone Disease are supported. Children and families are supported by hospice care over sometimes many years, depending on the illness. For children this is less often cancer but can be one of a wide range of neurological conditions or other life-threatening illnesses.
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How can I be referred to a hospice or palliative care service?
Your own GP (this is your family doctor) or a hospital doctor will normally arrange for you or a family member to be referred to a hospice or palliative care service. Do talk to your doctor or any of the staff caring for you if have worries or concerns or want to discuss the option of a referral. You will often be referred to a home-care service at first. The home-care service can arrange for you to stay in an in-patient unit if it becomes necessary. If you are having visits from a district nurse, he or she may also refer you to a Macmillan or Marie Curie nurse.
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Can I choose where I am referred?
People are normally referred to the hospice or palliative care service nearest to their home. In special circumstances it may be possible for referrals to be made to services elsewhere in the country.
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Will I have to pay?
No. Hospice or palliative care is free of charge to patients and their families.
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Are hospices religious places?
Hospice and palliative care services try to meet the needs of people from all cultures and religions and of those with no particular faith. Some hospices do have a Christian foundation, but all of them welcome everyone.
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How did hospices start?
St Christopher's and its founder, Dame Cicely Saunders had much to build on. The word 'hospice' was first connected with the care of the dying in 1842 when Madame Jeanne Garnier founded the Dames de Calvaire in Lyon, France. This was followed by the opening of Our Lady's Hospice in Dublin in 1879. St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney, London (1905) and St Luke's Hospital (Home for the Dying Poor 1893) were major inspirations for the founding of St Christopher's Hospice.
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