Dedicated ward in Vic for palliative care
A new palliative care ward that concentrates hospital expertise on patients who are close to death and enables them to still spend their final days at home, has been introduced at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Before the patients needing palliative care were spread around the hospital and once they were stabilised and their pain managed they were sent out to hospices. Now the dedicated unit draws together the patients with the doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, therapists, and pastoral care workers in a joint operation.
Dr Brian Le, head of palliative care at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, said that “we can draw on all the resources of the hospital, we have a full range of medical and surgical options for symptoms and quality of life. If there is a surgical option such as a nerve-block it can be done. We can get anaesthetists to walk across the corridor”.
“Our primary goal is to set things up so a patient is well enough to go home. People would prefer to have care at home, particularly at the end of life,” Dr Le said.
