Palliative care

About palliative care

The Specialist Palliative Care team at Velindre Cancer Centre comprise palliative medicine consultants, specialist trainee doctors and clinical nurse specialists. Inpatients and outpatients of the centre may be referred to the palliative care team. They will work together with the oncology consultants and other clinicians to provide the best care to meet the patients need.

Contact:

Our team of doctors, nurses and support staff is contactable via switchboard on 02920 615 888 or via our secretaries on 02920 19 6113.
On-call and out-of-hours advice (incl bank holidays) for South East Wales Palliative Care queries via hospice number on 02920 42 6000 (nurse or on-call doctor will be able to help). Saturdays, Sundays and on bank holidays we have a Palliative Care on-call nurse who works 9-5 in Velindre, contactable via switchboard. Remember he or she may be in a significant conversation with a patient or family  at the time you try to contact, in case there is no immediate response.

What do we do?

The palliative care team work in Velindre with the patients' consultants. We work with patients, relatives and carers in trying to achieve the best possible quality of life for cancer patients. Patients can be undergoing treatments at the same time.

We achieve this by:

Where are we based and where do we see patients?

We are based in the palliative medicine department within Velindre Cancer Centre. We see patients on all wards, Rhosyn day unit, chemotherapy outpatients, chemotherapy day case, main oncology outpatients and radiotherapy treatment areas. We also hold a weekly palliative medicine clinic where local patients can be assessed and have regular follow ups for symptom control.

How do patients get referred to the palliative care team?

Inpatients: 

no formal written referral process, the referral is usually verbal. We are invited to see patients by:

• Oncologists and their specialist registrars and junior doctors
• Ward nurses
• Allied healthcare professionals
• Other clinical nurse specialists

We pick up referrals by attending the ward meetings. Patients transferred from other hospitals/hospices are often highlighted to us by the specialist palliative care team in the referring hospitals/hospices. Patients admitted from the community are often highlighted to us by the specialist palliative care team in the community.

Outpatients: 

referrals can be verbal but are often written. Patients are referred to our palliative medicine outpatient clinic by:

• Oncologists and their specialist registrars
• GPs.
• Clinical nurse specialists from within the hospital and in the community.