Hospital
Posts > Palliative Care
Hospital
Posts > Palliative Care
Palliative Care and General Practice Joint
Post
Dove House Hospice
Chamberlain Road
HULL HU8 8DH
Educational Supervisor: Dr Derek Haines
Medical Secretary Dove House Hospice
Tel - 01482 784343
The VTS Registrar working in this post will spend 4 half days at the Hospice and 4/5 days in general practice. (It is expected that this practice will be the same as one of their fulltime 6 month practices wherever possible to give enhanced continuity of care in general practice).
Tuesday afternoon the Registrar will attend the half day release course or work at the practice, if there is no course.
The exact timetable will depend on the Registrar and GP Trainer in negotiation with the Hospice Educational Supervisor. There are 2 fixed sessions which registrars have found helpful to attend: on a Monday afternoon, there is a multi-disciplinary meeting at which all the in-patients are discussed, followed by a ward round: on a Thursday morning, the Community Macmillan Nursing Team meet with their medical advisor to discuss the new patients and any problems they have encountered.
The induction programme is tailored to suit the Registrar, but may include spending time with the Community Macmillan Nurse (usually the one covering their practice area), the Social Work Team, the Pharmacist, the Physiotherapist, the Day Hospice and the Chaplain. There is also a formal induction day which all new staff are asked to attend. This covers all the areas of work of the hospice including fund raising, voluntary staff, fire procedures etc.
The RCGP syllabus is used as an educational guide (a copy is found in the Registrars’ log book). Dove House Hospice has an Educational Department which runs a number of courses which may be of interest. Attendance can usually be arranged. The Library and an Information Centre are also based there. (The Baker Centre).
Work at the Hospice involves exposure to patients with a range of advanced life threatening illnesses, mainly cancer. The GP Registrar’s main responsibility will be the management of in-patients. The Registrar will usually admit 1 or 2 new patients each week and discuss these patients with another doctor. Daily duties shared with the other doctors may include taking blood tests, arranging blood transfusions, arranging discharge medications, communicating with the hospital, GP’s and District Nurses, dictating discharge letters for the patients they have admitted. Communication with family members and carers is given of great importance. Patients are admitted for symptom control respite or terminal care and usually stay for up to 2 weeks. The unit is staffed for up to 16 patients. Those having regular respite care (for example, patients with MS or MND) may come for up to 4 weeks per year. The Social Work Team deal with complex psychosocial problems and bereavement support. There is a Day Hospice running Monday to Friday with up to 20 patients attending each day. There is very little medical input into the Day Hospice at present. It may be possible to participate in outpatient clinics once these have been developed. There is no on call commitment at the Hospice.