Lucy Pain (pictured), a palliative care consultant and clinical lead for end of life care at our Trust, has shared her experience during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as how she ended up advising on palliative and end of life care at the London Nightingale Hospital.

She said: “My husband, who is an intensive care consultant at Whipps Cross Hospital, had attended an early planning meeting on the Nightingale. I felt palliative care wasn’t as high on the agenda as it should have been so I got in touch and offered our individualised end of life care plan for critical care.

“They asked me to come in, and before I knew it, I was heavily engrossed.”

Lucy worked alongside Caroline Stirling, palliative care consultant and Clinical Director for the NHS England/Improvement End of Life Care Programme (London), helping to develop compassionate care to ensure every patient would get excellent holistic care throughout their stay.

Lucy added: “I’m really proud of my involvement, especially as I was able to bring Claire Edwards from our team with me. Claire did amazing work on the wards at Nightingale and provided great support for the staff there.

“I work closely with our Critical Care team here so it was natural that we should share that more widely. It’s not just about end of life care, it’s about providing compassionate care, using the principles of palliative care, for all patients.”

Our End of Life and Specialist Palliative Care teams have worked hard to support staff across our Trust during the pandemic. This included providing information packs for our wards, giving advice on prescribing, easing symptoms and communicating with the families of very unwell patients, and offering a shoulder to cry on if needed.

Lucy said: “Our clinical colleagues have done really well in getting to grips with caring for dying patients during this pandemic. It can be quite stressful for them, especially as many of them would not have been used to looking after patients who are dying, and dealing with the emotional aftermath.

“We’ve also been proactively visiting wards to offer help. Everyone has been working closely together which has been really positive. We know it has been difficult for our patients when loved ones have not been able to visit, so we’ve been happy to help by phoning families to keep them updated.”