Although called ‘St Luke’s Hospice Plymouth’, this vibrant, life-affirming charity is no longer just a hospice building, and its services now reach far beyond Plymouth into Devon and Cornwall.
Founded in 1982, St Luke’s has been providing specialist end-of-life care to the local community for the last 35 years. Having grown from a seven-bed unit at Syrena House in Plymstock to the purpose-built 12 bed specialist unit in Turnchapel, along with care delivered at home and in Derriford Hospital, St Luke’s has always had a strong presence in our community, and its passion and commitment to offering dignity and choice to patients has never dwindled. 15 years ago, the NHS transferred end-of-life care in this area from Macmillan nurses to St Luke’s and last year the charity cared for 3,480 patients and their families, providing care for the terminally ill wherever they needed it most - be that at home, in Derriford Hospital or at the specialist unit at Turnchapel.
St Luke’s Specialist Unit
The specialist unit is based at the head office in Turnchapel, Plymstock where most rooms look out onto the beautiful surroundings of Plymouth Sound. The vast majority of St Luke’s patients never need to come into the specialist unit, as they are well cared for in their own home. The beds are intended for short-stay patients with complex needs that are difficult to manage in other settings, and provided symptoms can be satisfactorily addressed, the aim is to return patients to their home or nursing home; in fact over 40% of patients return home after their stay in the unit.
St Luke’s at Derriford
This unit operates in Derriford Hospital, providing a specialist palliative care service to patients in hospital. Across every ward, the team works alongside NHS doctors offering specialist advice and emotional support for hospital patients, their families and carers. Last year, St. Luke’s at Derriford cared for 1080 patients – that’s 31% of the total number of patients cared for by the charity. The unit also plays a pivotal role in training NHS staff in delivering good end-of-life care across the hospital.
St Luke’s at home
The service offers specialist advice and support to people with a progressive life-limiting illness. Almost half of St Luke’s patients are seen in their own homes, including residential care and nursing homes alongside vulnerable communities such as the homeless. The team consists of nurses, social workers and occupational therapists who work in partnership with patients, carers, GPs and other health and social care providers. The team offers advice on complex symptoms, guidance with financial and social problems, practical help to enable patients to maximise their independence, whilst also liaising with other professionals to provide additional support where needed.
St Luke’s Crisis Team
The Crisis Team is a fairly new service that cares for patients at home, including those in residential and nursing homes, for a period of up to 72 hours in a time of crisis. The core aim of this service is to reduce unnecessary admissions to Derriford, by responding within an hour to stabilise symptoms with a short intervention. The Crisis Team can also arrange rapid discharge from hospital so a patient can return home to die surrounded by loved ones in a more familiar environment. The Crisis Team covers a vast area from Kingsbridge to east Looe, Plymouth and Tavistock and works alongside district nurses, GPs and other charities like Marie Curie.St Luke’s Open Gardens
Now in its eighth year St Luke’s Open Gardens is an enjoyable and inspiring way to show your support. The Open Garden season this year hosted 23 gardens across Devon and Cornwall, many featuring gardens here in West Devon such as Stroll Gardens in Yelverton, Ottery Cottage Gardens and Hotel Endsleigh. New gardens and old favourites, this diverse selection had something for everyone from the impressive Fleet House estate and gardens, to village walkabouts, all chosen to delight and inspire. Many are not normally open to the public so they offer a unique insight and there are usually plants on sale, homemade cakes and refreshments available. The season is almost coming to a close for this year, but there is still time to visit Alpine House, Bere Ferrers on 13 August and Lower Charaton Cottage in Pensilva, Cornwall on 10 September. For more information visit www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/opengardens
Raising in the region of £50,000 last year, the Open Gardens event continues to grow and St Luke’s is already looking for new gardens in West Devon to feature next year, if you would like to get involved please contact Wayne Marshall on 01752 964426 or email wmarshall@stlukes-hospice.org.uk
St Luke’s projects and partnerships
St Luke’s care cannot work in isolation and the charity is keen to share its expertise, provide training and educate other healthcare partners to give them the skills to deliver good end-of-life care. Last year 2,117 healthcare professionals, from nurses and paramedics, to homeless- and alcohol-support workers were trained to ensure everyone has access to good end-of-life care. The award-winning Six Steps programme is a great example of how training for care and nursing home staff ensures they have the skills they need. St. Luke’s is also running a module at Plymouth University for doctors and nurses of the future, and last year it welcomed 81 student doctors onto the wards to help them develop the medical and communication skills required at end of life.
St Luke’s volunteers, sponsorship and fundraising
St Luke’s is extremely grateful for the generous support of the local community, in raising £4million last year, but also for the 891 volunteers that helped to open charity shops, offer their professional corporate skills, welcome patients’ families, run events, support the recently bereaved and hand out cups of tea. In 2015 Her Majesty conferred the Queen’s Award for Volunteering upon St. Luke’s. Last year 540,000 purchases were made in one of the 30 St Luke’s charity shops dotted across Devon and Cornwall, contributing £1million profit directly into patient care and towards the £9.5million annual running costs. Over 52,000 steps were walked, run and sweated in sponsored events, 11,000 people played the weekly lottery and the local community joined together in community events such as Coffee Morning month, while the orange collecting cans on shop and café counters in West Devon amassed over £80,000. St Luke's service is free of charge to patients and families - however the charity receives only 36% of its funding, from the government and has to raise over £4 million every year. The support of the community will continue to be very important to St Luke’s, and there are many ways for us all to support its cause.
St Luke’s patients are involved as far as possible in decisions about their care, to maintain privacy, dignity and to respect patients’ individual rights, and religious and cultural beliefs. The approach to care is holistic, sharing the ethos of the late Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement: “You matter because you are you. You matter to the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can to help you not only to die peacefully, but also to live until you die”. That would seem to be what all of us would want.
For more information visit www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk