AS well as providing end-of-life care in our inpatient unit, Bury Hospice also looks after people in the community.

Helping patients early in a life-limiting diagnosis is key to the success of the hospice’s outreach service, which was launched as a pilot scheme back in March 2019.

The hospice at home care which our outreach service replaced, helped patients during the last few days of their life.

Now our outreach team is getting involved much earlier in their diagnosis and the team spends time with patients and their families to signpost what help is available and talk through the process of their illness so they know what to expect.

Carole Langley, an outreach nurse, said: “We want to understand the needs of our patients and also support the families because quite often they are under strain and really alone. It is about empowering and supporting patients and families and educating them. We want to help people recognise and understand changes in their condition and help them know who they should contact.

“If their choice is to remain at home, we want to support them to do that for as long as possible. We are getting involved much earlier than when the illness reaches crisis point and patients are being rushed to hospital. It is not just about palliative care, it is about living well.

“We provide care for our patients but there are so many other things we can help with. Some people are anxious about their illness or treatment, others are worried about bills and benefits and sometimes someone is just reassured you are there.”

The service also helps patients reach other services, like complementary therapy for patients and their families. Johanna Cohen, a former inpatient nurse, runs this service, and is passionate about the difference this can make.

We also host The Christie clinic in our Living Well Centre on Tuesdays and Thursdays as part of the Systemic Anti Cancer Therapy (SACT) outreach service. SACT delivers systemic anti-cancer therapy - chemotherapy, immunotherapy, bisphosphonates or hormone treatment.

Patients who wish to visit the phlebotomy clinic are required to book in advance. For more information on availability, we encourage people to contact the SACT Outreach team on 0161 918 7654.

At the hospice we recognise patients and their families need more than medical care and we are continuing to develop our services to provide emotional, spiritual and wellbeing support too.