Referral to Specialist Palliative Care Unit (SPCU) Inpatient Ward

Patients who are admitted will ordinarily have progressive incurable disease, complex symptom control or psychosocial, spiritual or end-of-life care issues that cannot readily be managed by their current care provider(s). It is recognised that there are ‘grey areas’ and referrers are encouraged to discuss any queries about the appropriateness of a referral with the SPCU team.

Patients are admitted to the SPCU wards for

Symptom control, including rehabilitation
End-of-life care
Respite

Daily admissions meetings are held to discuss new inpatient referrals, and to review the cases on the waiting list; this allows us to prioritise admission according to need. Over 90% of patients accepted for admission will be offered a bed within a week
Only patients aged 16 or over can be admitted
Acute hospital referrals must be reviewed by the hospital’s Specialist Palliative Care (SPC) team before the patient can be considered for admission
Referrals for admission of patients not previously known to a SPC service, or who live outside the catchment area of the OLH&CS community services must be discussed with one of the palliative care consultants.

Patients and families are welcome to visit the SPCU when considering admission. This can be arranged through contacting the Admissions Officer.

OLH&CS offers planned respite admissions for patients known to our community based services. Each referral is made and coordinated through the patient’s community based palliative care team.

Situated within the Anna Gaynor House residential unit, the Palliative Care Support Beds (Level II Support Beds) cater to a separate cohort of patients, with generalist palliative care needs. The management of these beds is coordinated by the Inter-Disciplinary Admissions Committee (IDAC).

For more information, contact the Admissions Office: (01) 406 8790