Spotlight on The Doncaster Community Specialist Palliative Care Team

Our Community Specialist Palliative Care Team offers specialist advice and support to patients and their loved ones in their own home or care home.

As with all of our palliative care services, the team’s main aim is to achieve the best possible quality of life by managing the effects of advancing disease.

Community Specialist Palliative Care Team Leader Sarah Bell said: “Not all patients with a life-limiting illness will require the support of our team, so we work closely with local GPs, district nurses and other health professionals to support those patients who have more complex palliative needs.

“This could be to offer specialist advice in managing more complex symptoms, when a patient’s preferred place of care is their own home instead of a hospital, or the hospice setting.”

She added: “Our care is provided by clinical nurse specialists who visit patients in the community and work with them to discuss the best way they can support the patient and their family.

“Our team are here seven days a week and go above and beyond to support patients and their loved ones at a very difficult time of their lives. We work closely with our hospice colleagues and provide friendly, individualised, and compassionate care but in the familiar setting of their own home, if that is where they feel most comfortable.”