TEAMS from St Leonard's Hospice and a local hospital trust have joined forces in preparation for increased demand on end of life care services due to the coronavirus pandemic.

St Leonard's Hospice@Home team have collaborated with York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust's Community Specialist Palliative Care Team.

The newly-formed team are based in the Sunflower Centre at St Leonard’s Hospice, on Tadcaster Road, York.

The service operates from 8am to midnight and consists of clinical nurse specialists, senior and deputy sisters, registered nurses, health care assistants and an administration and clinical triage team.

The services were brought together by Caroline Allison, community Macmillan palliative care team leader and Alison Skelton, senior sister for Hospice@Home.

Caroline and Alison said: “Both teams have worked incredibly hard to develop a service that can rapidly respond to patient and family needs in challenging and highly emotional situations. Every day brings new challenges but the team work together and support each other to deliver an exceptionally high level of service for patients and families in and around York.”

Between April 1 and 27, the combined service has supported more than 115 patients in their own homes. The new team's triage service is receiving in excess of 50 phone calls per day from patients, relatives, GPs and district nurses for advice and support.

Jenny Brandom, director of clinical services at St Leonard’s, said: “I am immensely proud of what this joint team has done in responding to and coordinating end of life care for patients across the Vale of York at this testing time. Bringing two highly skilled teams together from different organisations means that we can provide a service to patients and families in their home environment whilst having access to the hospice In Patient Unit and the wider hospice team when needed.”

Steve Reed, head of community services at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is a great example of teams putting aside organisational boundaries to meet the needs of patients at this difficult time. They continue to collaborate with wider health and care teams across the community to deliver great palliative care to local people.”