From Thursday 25 May, Weston Hospicecare’s Community Nursing Team expanded its care services.

The team has increased its coverage to treat patients between 9am-10pm on weekdays and 9am-5pm each Saturday.

This pattern will be in place until mid-September. The temporary addition of care on a Saturday will reduce the time patients are waiting for contact by a Hospice Community Nurse Specialist.

The hospice has implemented the switch to reduce patient anxiety, improve communication internally and to ensure the team are appropriately prepared to react to any changes enforced by the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the UK entered lockdown on 24 March, community nurses have been caring for patients in the comfort of their own homes to relieve suffering with comprehensive PPE provisions.

This has and will continue, to protect patients, their families and themselves.

The current patient care environment has changed so quickly over the past four months and reality is no one knows how the status of the pandemic will evolve.

Amanda Gough, Community Team Manager, says “I am so pleased we have been able to put these changes in place, which extend the availability of our hospice community nurse specialists.

I hope over this period we can really make a difference by increasing support for our patients, their families and our health care professional colleagues and hopefully this will reduce anxiety, improve symptom management and provide better communication across the teams providing out of hours clinical service.”

Tight restrictions remain in place at the hospice’s base at Jackson-Barstow House to protect patients, nurses and visitors on site.

For the most up-to-date information about how our care has been affected by the pandemic, visit https://bit.ly/LatestCOVIDStatement.