Minister’s surprise visit to Downe unit

Minister’s surprise visit to Downe unit

3 June 2015

HEALTH Minister Simon Hamilton paid a surprise visit to the Downe Hospital last week to meet patients at the Marie Curie Day Hospice unit.

The cancer charity is celebrating its 50th anniversary and Mr Hamilton spent time with patients and praised Marie Curie’s work as a leader in the provision of palliative and end of life care to people who are terminally ill.

During his visit, Mr Hamilton spoke of the “invaluable work” the charity provides, including a range of bespoke regional services for patients, carers and families, inpatient facilities at the Marie Curie Hospice in Belfast, community nursing services and a volunteer helper service.

The Minister said he was pleased to be in Downpatrick to meet with those using the day hospice services as well as the staff providing them.

“Caring for people who are living with a non-curative condition requires not only professional skills but, crucially, compassion, empathy and an awareness of the uniqueness both of the person and their loved ones,” he continued.

“As our population ages, more people will be living with chronic conditions. We need to ensure that we are able to provide people with the support they need, particularly so when they have a palliative or end of life diagnosis. This can include helping people to access appropriate support services, receive care at home or access specialist hospital services where needed.”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Marie Curie in Northern Ireland with the establishment of what was then known as the Beaconsfield Hospice in East Belfast. Since then, Marie Curie services in Northern Ireland have expanded to encompass its nursing service and helper service, caring for those living with a terminal illness, irrespective of diagnosis. 

“Emphasising the need for care to be organised around the individual, based on each person’s specific needs and with more decisions taken by the individual service user, is a model of care set out in Transforming Your Care,” said the Minister during his visit to Downpatrick. “This person-focused delivery approach is particularly important in palliative and end of life care.

“The Transforming Your Palliative and End of Life Care programme is supporting this through the re-design and delivery of co-ordinated services to enable people with palliative and end of life care needs to have choice in their preferred place of care.” 

Miriam McKeown, Hospice manager in Downpatrick, expressed delight that the Health Minister was able to take time out of his busy schedule to visit the day facility at the Downe.

“The Marie Curie day hospice service has been operating in the area since 2003 and is managed in partnership with the South Eastern Trust,” she explained. “The service allows patients with a terminal illness to be assessed by a variety of specialists, for example, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists and for a range of needs to be professionally met.”

Miriam added: “These can include pain management, mobility assessment and symptom control. By offering this type of day service patients are able to remain at home, but retain sufficient levels of contact with the appropriate medical and health care teams.”