Farewell to Forest Holme patient with advanced disease, and bring ease to the family and friends. I don’t think there is any other field of medicine where results can be won so quickly. Another difference in hospices is the way in which any problem that is concerning the patient and their family is addressed by the team providing care, without limits. The principles of hospice care are explicit that problems may be physical, emotional, social or spiritual, and all of these should be helped. Again, there is no other branch of health or social care where that it is true in the same way. The modern hospice movement came about because historically there were This March marks the end of my term as great deficits in the care that the NHS Chair of Trustees of Forest Holme Hospice gave to those at the end of their lives. Charity. I have been associated with Over the past sixty years, most of the Forest Holme since it was just a set of hospices that have been founded across architects’ plans thirty years ago, but my the rest of the country have been run by involvement in the hospice movement small locally based independent charities. extends back further, to June 1979, when While that has given them excellent roots I went to work as a trainee doctor at St in their communities, it has left them Christopher’s Hospice in London. The somewhat detached from the NHS, which things that excited me then about this is where all the patients are to be found. whole new system of care are the things that now keep me committed to supporting Forest Holme in any way I can.
One of the remarkable things about hospice care is how much people can be helped in a very short time. A couple of days, and sometimes only a couple of hours, can transform the wellbeing of a 16
