Doctors at Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice in Peterborough put the patients at the heart of everything they do

A medical team which provides palliative care has spoken of its determination to put patients at the heart of everything it does.

The team at Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice in Peterborough includes one medical consultant, four speciality doctors and a number of trainee GPs, junior doctors and specialist registrars in training who all help provide specialist palliative care.

Dr Sarah Treaddell, who has worked with Sue Ryder for three years, said: “I think if you ask doctors and medical students why they went into medicine, they will all say they wanted to help people.

“I found that palliative care is the place where I really feel I get to do that. This area of medicine is very much about what the patient wants and their needs.”

Dr Caroline Anson, has worked at Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice for 12 years, agrees.

“As a medical student I visited a hospice. Witnessing the compassion and holistic approach to care given by a team united by the common goal of making that patient’s situation as good as it could be in the circumstances made a powerful impact,” she said.

“It was humbling to witness. The most relevant thing here is what the patient needs. We have the opportunity to try to make a meaningful impact to how a patient is feeling, so they can function and continue to live their life in the way that they wish to at that time.”

Dr Belinda Worsfold has worked in palliative medicine for 14 years and is new to the Thorpe Hall team.

She said: “I remember being very struck at the plight of palliative patients before this specialty existed.

“They rarely had things explained to them, often were not told the truth about their illness or prognosis and didn’t get the care they needed.

“When I had an opportunity to be a locum in a hospice I thought ‘this is it. This is my thing!’ And I have not looked back. Palliative care is what I had always hoped medicine would be.”

Dr Sarah Treadwell has been providing medical care at Thorpe Hall for 20 years.

She said: “When I was training I didn’t know what area of medicine I wanted to practice in, but when my grandad was terribly ill he had no palliative support.

“I wanted to know what the alternative was, so I started looking into it and that is how I came into palliative care.

“The best thing about my job is our patients and the fact that I have the time to be able to sit with them and talk with them. It helps me remember exactly what we are here for.”

Despite the first palliative care consultants only being appointed in 1995, Caroline says the specialty has evolved quickly, while offering doctors the opportunity to work on a broad range of medical issues.

“In palliative medicine we see and support patients with a very wide range of medical, surgical, psychological diagnoses or problems as well as the practical or social challenges a patient may face.

“As a specialty that makes it really interesting and varied.

“Palliative medicine has evolved too. Oncology treatment has changed so much and this means palliative care is becoming more complex and specialist as disease trajectories change.”

One of the biggest misconceptions people have about palliative medicine, which the hospice doctors would like to tackle, is that it is focused only on death and dying.

“You say the word hospice and people hear the word death,” adds Sarah Treaddell, “But a lot of what we do is symptom management. Patients come in and we manage their symptoms and they go home again and that often comes as a surprise to people.”

Sarah Treadwell shares the same opinion.

“When I tell people where I work they say ‘oh that must be really heart-breaking’, but it is not. I want people to know that through our specialist care, we make people’s lives better, no matter how long their life may be.”

Caroline added: “The thing I hear time and again is that people don’t want to come into a hospice because they feel they won’t go home again. But we are not about just end-of-life care. We are far more than that. People come in receive our support to help them live as well as they can for as long as they can.”

“In fact we discharge a lot of patients home from the inpatient unit, and that is a great feeling as we know we have made an impact.”

There are often misconceptions that hospices only provide care for people with cancer too, adds Sarah Treaddell.

“People often associate hospices with cancer, but it is much broader than that. We provide specialist care for any life limiting condition and that can be at any stage of their illness – we don’t just care for the imminently dying. People are often surprised to hear we support people with conditions like heart failure, kidney failure, respiratory and neurological illnesses.”

Sarah hopes the benefits of palliative medicine will become more easily accessible to more people.

She said: “Looking to the future I really feel palliative care will see an increased focus on helping people who are dying from complex symptoms at home.

Belinda adds: “Medicine, and palliative care in particular, are extraordinary jobs. Patients offer us their trust and let us into their lives at their most difficult times.

“The conversations we have with patients are truly honest, and intimate without being personal.

“This is a privilege and there is nothing else like it - ordinary life can seem very pale by comparison.”