Frequently asked questions:

Why has St Catherine's changed its community service?
Were there any other reasons for changing service?
Does this mean you will be taking over from the district nursing teams?

Why has St Catherine's changed its community service?
For some years we experienced increasing number of referrals. Partly this is due to cancer becoming a more chronic disease but also as a result of accepting referrals for patients with non-malignant conditions. Our new ways of providing care to our patients is in response to these changing needs.

Rather than just providing an advisory and support service for people in their own homes we will be able to provide a hands-on, practical service.

Were there any other reasons for changing service?
Previously our out of hours (outside Monday-Friday daytime) support for community patients was via a telephone support service, utilised by patients, carers and healthcare professionals.

The new service will add practical hands-on care to our range of services. We hope that this will go a long way to ensuring patients' wishes to be cared for at home will not be compromised, in line with the Department of Health's End of Life Care Strategy.

Does this mean you will be taking over from the district nursing teams?
No. Our intention is to work in partnership with our community colleagues to ensure patient care needs are met in the home setting - if this is the patient's wish.

We are in on-going discussions with the local PCTs to ensure we continue to develop our new model of care in conjunction with existing services.