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Palliative Care Unit

 

At Bermingham Hospital we have, among others, the following units:

  • Palliative care unit: oncological (15 beds) and non-oncological (14 beds).

NON-ONCOLOGICAL PALLIATIVE CARE UNIT

This unit has 14 beds and is designed to provide comprehensive care to terminally ill patients (neurodegenerative and organ-terminal diseases) of non-oncological origin and their families, attending to physical, emotional and social aspects.

The Unit has a multidisciplinary team, among which the following stand out:

  • Geriatrician with a Master's degree in Palliative Care.
  • Geriatric Nursing Team
  • Assistants
  • Psychological support
  • Social worker

Unit objectives:

  • Identify, through the VGI and scales such as the VIG-Frail and NECPAL, patients who can benefit from palliative care.
  • Offer comprehensive care centred on the person, addressing polypharmacy, fragility, geriatric syndromes, etc.
  • After identifying the end-of-life situation due to end-stage organ failure or neurodegenerative disease, inform and guide the patient and family in making decisions during admission and after discharge from hospital (adjustment of polypharmacy, reduction of admissions to acute units, symptomatic control, family support, MAP monitoring and control, hospitalisation at home).
  • To achieve the best possible quality of life and promote the autonomy and dignity of the terminal patient through individualised, continuous and comprehensive care that takes into account the physical, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of each person.

ONCOLOGY PALLIATIVE CARE UNIT

This unit has 15 beds and is designed to provide comprehensive care to terminally ill cancer patients and their families, attending to physical, emotional, social and spiritual aspects when there is a situation of incurable and progressive advanced disease.

The La Caixa Foundation's Programme of Comprehensive Care for People with Advanced Illnesses and their families is implemented in this Unit.

The aim of this programme is to offer patients social, spiritual and emotional support, as well as support for families and palliative care professionals, thus contributing to improving the quality of life of patients, complementing the health care currently provided by palliative care professionals.

In turn, and together with La Caixa, to promote new lines of action in the field of palliative care in Spain and to collaborate in raising public awareness of the end of life and palliative care through dissemination actions.

Unit objectives:

  • Achieving the best possible quality of life and promoting the autonomy and dignity of advanced cancer patients through individualised, continuous and comprehensive care that takes into account the physical, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of each person.
  • Drawing up an individualised therapeutic and care plan by means of continuous and interdisciplinary assessment, in order to specify the work plan, detect new situations and adapt the necessary solutions. This includes: symptom control, resolution of other associated pathologies, adaptation of organisational and environmental measures according to the particularities of the patient, basic comfort care (adapted diet, mouth and skin care, etc.), constant communication, actively involving the family and carers, among others.
  • Offering a support system to the family to face and cope with the illness, death and subsequent mourning.
  • Assessment from the social point of view of both the patient and their family, in order to detect, manage and coordinate the most appropriate social resource according to the needs of the patient and their family environment.
  • Contribute to improving the care provided to patients in need of palliative care in other Matia units by transmitting knowledge to the different care teams.

Inclusion criteria

  • Terminal patients with a clearly defined prognosis of less than 3-6 months, with multiple, multifactorial, changing and intense symptoms that cause a high demand for care, with a great emotional impact on both the patient and the family environment.
  • Impossibility of home care.
  • Impossibility of care in gerontological or socio-health centres.

Exclusion criteria:

  • Any pathology in the terminal phase (oncological, organ failure, dementia, neurodegenerative diseases, comas, infections,) but stable, without clinical or emotional impact, and/or with severe cognitive impairment.
  • When there are conditions of care at home or in the gerontological centre that guarantee continuity of care.

The Unit has a multidisciplinary team, among which the following stand out:

  • Geriatrician with a Master's degree in Palliative Care.
  • Reference Nurse with a Master's Degree in Palliative Care.
  • Nurses.
  • Assistants.
  • Team of psychologists from the Programme of Comprehensive Care for People with Advanced Illnesses and their families of the La Caixa Foundation.
  • Social worker.
  • Occupational therapist and physiotherapist support.