Delivered with the support of private health fund insurers, the service incudes 24/7 access to palliative care telephone support and visits from nursing and allied health practitioners. Hospital admissions can be facilitated as required including close collaboration with the Mary Potter Foundation to enhance the delivery of quality palliative care.

The Calvary Palliative Home Care Service supports people with complex palliative care needs to remain at home for as long as possible for their end of life care. It will also assists people to die at home wherever possible, if that is their wish.

There is an increasing desire to provide patients with increased options as to where end of life care is provided and ultimately where the patient will die. The literature identifies that the majority of patients, if possible, would choose to be cared for and to die at home. The literature also reports that dying and a death at home correlated with a higher quality of patient and carer experience. However, it should also be noted that where a patient or their family want a patient to receive end of life care and where they wish the patient to die may not be the same.

The service endeavours to help identify the right balance between home based and inpatient palliative care that may be achieved by exploring and optimising the use of palliative home care for people who wish to die at home.

Providing increased choice for patients to remain under the care of Calvary and choose the location of their care (Home or Hospice) is a key focus for this service.

The Calvary Palliative Home Care Service creates a more seamless experience for patients as they transition between care environments.

Patients being cared for their homes, and their carers/families, have 24/7 access to specialist palliative care support via telephone. This telephone support will have the ability to initiate other support services and escalate patient care via an on-call homecare nurse who can visit the patient if required, contact a Medical Palliative Care Specialist, arrange direct admission when a bed is available, or recommend transfer to the Calvary Wakefield emergency department.

As part of the service implementation we have been evaluating the quality of life outcomes, satisfaction with care, and carer burden that can be achieved through the provision of palliative home care, utilizing evaluation tools designed specifically for the palliative care environment.

We look forward to providing details of this evaluation in the coming months.