Referral criteria and procedure for Hospice services
Referral procedure
For out of hours referrals to the Hospice, please call St Elizabeth Hospice OneCall on 0800 56 70 111.
For all non urgent referrals, please click here to complete the online Hospice referral form.
If a referral is urgent please call St Elizabeth Hospice OneCall, a 24 hour phoneline on 0800 56 70 111.
Changes to Referral Process
From the 1st March the way referrals are managed by the hospice has changed. All referrals for inpatient care will continue to be discussed at a daily referrals meeting or by the senior clinician if an urgent referral falls outside of these times. Referrals for Community, Day Care and Outpatients will be triaged by a CNS within 48 hours and assigned to the most appropriate service. For example a patient with Cancer of the lung and troubled by breathlessness, may after a triage assessment attend the Easy Breathing course before being introduced to the community CNS team. Previously, patients may already have been too ill to complete this course as the process of activating the referral and identifying the most appropriate referrals was too lengthy.
Referrals can be faxed to 01473 712652 or submitted via our website at www.stelizabethhospice.org.uk – a copy of the referral form can be obtained from the website. For referrals out of hours, please contact OneCall on 0800 567 011 and fax referrals to 01473 719419.
Referral criteria
Our referral criteria recognises that a patient's needs may be greater at certain times of their illness and referrals can be made at anytime including at diagnosis, or through a relapse or recurrence of disease as well as in the terminal phase. People can be discharged from our services and be re-referred at a later stage.
Referral criteria
1. The patient will have a progressive illness, with supportive and palliative care needs
2. The patient will be 18 years or older
3. Referrals will be based on the needs of the patient and his or her family rather than the diagnosis
4. The patient has consented to the referral
Examples of reasons for referral are
- difficult pain and symptom control
- patients and family having difficulty in coping with the progressive illness and its consequences
- need for palliative rehabilitation
- complex spiritual issues due to the impact of the illness on spirituality
All patients referred will have an initial holistic needs assessment except where the referrals are for admission to the in-patient unit. In this instance a decision will be made on the basis of verbal and written information supplied by the referring and other health and social care professionals.
The Hospice does not have any designated long term care beds.
Relatives or carers of patients with palliative care needs who are having psychosocial difficulties can be referred for family support or complementary therapy.