F.A.Q

About Nightingale House Hospice

What geographical area does Nightingale House cover?

Hospice Services

Are the Hospice’s services free of charge?
What is Palliative Care?
What is Palliative Medicine?
How can I see one of the doctors?

About Nightingale House Hospice

What geographical area does Nightingale House cover?

Nightingale House Hospice provides specialist palliative care services, completely free of charge, to people across Wrexham, Flintshire, East Denbighshire, the A494 corridor to Barmouth, and the borders, including Oswestry, Ellesmere, Wem and Whitchurch.

Hospice Services

Are the Hospice’s services free of charge?

Yes, all of our services are provided completely free of charge to the patient and their family.

What is Palliative Care?

Specialist palliative care is the total active care of patients with advancing, non-curable disease and limited prognosis and their families, by a multi-professional team who have undergone recognised specialist palliative care training. The support provided is holistic, encompassing physical, psychological, social and spiritual support, and will involve practitioners with a broad mix of skills including medical and nursing care, social work, pastoral/spiritual care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and pharmacy. Some patients may need palliative care from the time of diagnosis.

What is Palliative Medicine?

Palliative Medicine is a relatively new medical speciality. It focuses on supporting patients and families who are living with life-limiting illnesses, usually cancer. Specialists in Palliative Medicine work in co-operation with, rather than taking over from the patient’s family doctor and hospital specialists, offering particular expertise in the control of pain or other distressing symptoms.The doctors see patients on the ward, in clinic and in day-care, working very closely with the nursing team, physiotherapists, occupational therapy, social workers, and lymphoedema nurse and chaplaincy teams within the hospice.

How can I see one of the doctors?

You can ask your family doctor or hospital specialist to refer you, or they, or one of the nurses they work with may suggest this to you. Often patients are seen in clinic first: An Outpatient clinic is held 3 times a week in the Hospice but also a clinic is held jointly with the cancer specialist at the Maelor Hospital and there are also clinics at Mold, Chirk and Holywell Community Hospitals.In the Inpatient Unit patients are seen every day by one of the medical team, and there are two weekly ward rounds to plan and monitor treatment. At evenings, nights and weekends the Medical Team are available on-call to the Hospice providing advice or assessment “out of hours”.

Patients attending Day Care remain under the care of their family doctor. The Hospice doctors may see them if the Day Care team or the patient’s G.P. feels this appropriate.

If I see a doctor at the Hospice does that mean there will be no more active treatment?

No, the doctors work closely with, and when necessary discuss your case with the specialists teams at the Maelor and the Cancer Treatment Centre at Glan Clwyd Hospital. Patients within the Hospice may receive blood transfusions and other treatments that may offer benefit. On some occasions tests and sometimes further treatment at hospital may be necessary. Any such plans would always be discussed with the patient and their family.