What is palliative care?

Palliative care has grown up as a speciality since the 1980’s where the emphasis has been on holistic care of the patients.

Palliative care aims to see that the patient does not get lost in the middle of a disease but still becomes a person that is suffering from a condition. Palliative care has had the reputation of just being concerned with death and dying.  This may be true when the specialty first started. Palliative care has seen itself expand much more into symptom control and discussing how to help people live with their condition and to improve the quality of their life even though time may be short.

Palliative care now finds itself to have its own specialty within the Royal College of Physicians. It is possible to become a consultant in palliative care either through a physician route, through general practice or indeed through anesthetics. As with other specialties, palliative Specialist Trainees have to go through four years of base training.  There is a very large training rotation within the West Midlands region.  All our Consultants at our hospices in Shropshire and North Powys have completed this base training and come from a varied background of either hospital, general practice or both.

If you have any further questions considering a career in palliative care please do not hesitate to contact us here at Severn Hospice.