At the hospice

Our In-Patient Unit at St Catherine’s provides the most intensive round the clock care for patients and their loved ones.

It can care for up to 19 patients at a time, with most in single rooms, although some are shared. All have en suites and most have facilities for a relative to stay overnight – either in the same room or, if available, in a separate room.

Unlike a care or nursing home, we do not provide long-term care within the hospice since our services are very much in demand. Instead we work to provide specialist interventions to help symptoms become more manageable, with more than half our patients then discharged home.

Our medical and nursing teams, support team, physiotherapists, complementary therapists and volunteers work together to ensure that physical, psychological, spiritual and social needs are met during a stay with us. We recognise that the emotional support people need at this time is often just as important as the physical care which is needed.

Care is personalised to meet the specific needs of each individual and their family. We work together to manage pain and other complex symptoms – with the aim of helping people have the best possible quality of life whilst avoiding the need for hospital admission.

Click below to read some first-hand accounts from patients and families who have been cared for and supported at the hospice:

• ‘The hospice became a home-from-home for me and my mum’
• ‘St Catherine’s has given me strength’
  
• ‘It was like coming to a hotel with brilliant medical care’