Volunteers to help to bring comfort to end of life patients

Rebecca Taylor, MacMillan end of life care administrator at Pennine Acute Trust; Joanne McAllister, volunteer service manager at Pennine Acute; Yvonne Daniels, Reece Kenworthy, Sam Perrin, Kirsty Crawford, support worker and Gary Baynham, key worker. Front row, left to right: Mollie Fennelly, Usman Khan and Daniel Taylor

Volunteers at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have joined forces with New Bridge Horizons in Oldham in getting ready a new initiative which will help to bring comfort to patients facing the end of their life at The Royal Oldham Hospital.

The end of life care team at Pennine Acute Trust, has obtained funding to provide comfort packs for end of life patients who do not have personal items to maintain their needs and dignity. The packs provide a quality and compassionate service to these patients being cared for within the Trust’s hospitals including The Royal Oldham, North Manchester General Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury and Rochdale Infirmary.

The comfort packs comprise a toiletries bag with a hairbrush, dry shampoo, deodorant, lip balm, body/hand moisturiser and cleansing wipes enclosed.

The end of life care team worked alongside the Pennine Acute volunteer service and the volunteers from New Bridge Horizons to put together the first 1000 comfort packs.

Alice Davies, Macmillan associate lead cancer and palliative care nurse, said: “The comfort packs are provided to promote delivery of quality and compassionate care to patients who are approaching the end of their life, and do not have personal items to maintain their needs and dignity. They may also be offered to family members who are staying with their loved one for long periods of time.

“The end of life care team would like to say a huge thank you to all the volunteers who kindly helped in making the comfort packs ready for the Trust to use.”

Joanne McAllister, volunteer service manager, said: “The volunteers have done a fantastic job putting together over 1000 comfort packs and we are grateful for their help and support with this important project.

“New Bridge Horizons is a day provision for young adults between the ages of 19 and 25 with learning and/or physical difficulties. They provide on-going support to develop life skills, independence and employability skills and create opportunities for social development to enhance life opportunities.”