Specialist palliative care
What we do
We are a specialist team providing advice and support to patients, and those who are important to them, living with illnesses which may not be curable. These illnesses include cancer and non-cancer conditions. We aim to treat everyone with respect, compassion and dignity and to focus on what matters most to our patients and those important to them. Our service aims to support quality of life and living well and to lessen suffering by supporting the emotional, physical, spiritual and social needs of our patients, their family, friends and carers.
We work across the medical and surgical specialities in both in-patient and out-patient settings and provide an additional layer of support and expertise, alongside the primary treating teams. Our team is made up of nurses, doctors, therapists, counsellors, chaplains, volunteers and administrators.
We also work with services such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy, dietetics, discharge teams and social services to advise on care and support that may be required during admission and also planning care following discharge. Further, we work closely with community services, including GPs and community palliative care, to support the transition of care across different settings. We offer and support advance care planning for our patients with the aim of co-designing care plans that reflect individual preferences and priorities.
Our team
The team at Chelsea and Westminster is led by Dr Sarah Cox and at West Middlesex by Dr Louise Robinson.
Contact
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital:
T: 020 3315 8499/8268
The team is available Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm, and Sat/Sun 8am–4pm.
Outside these hours there is specialist palliative care advice available to the hospital teams from our local hospice, Royal Trinity Hospice.
West Middlesex University Hospital
T: 020 8321 6822
The team is available Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm, and Sat/Sun 8am–4pm.
Outside these hours there is specialist palliative care advice available to the hospital teams from our local hospice, Meadow House Hospice.