Palliative Care Community Open Day

The Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care Team who work on behalf of Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust (PCT) are inviting all residents from across the borough to attend their Palliative Care Community Open Day.

Everyone is welcome including cancer patients, their friends and family, carers, health professionals and the general public. The event will take place on Thursday 20 September.

The event will start at 10am at Richmond Hall, Lomax Street, Rochdale OL10 OJR, with a free buffet lunch being served at midday. The event will close at 2.30pm.

The Macmillan nurses hope the event will promote the services that are available to help patients and their loved ones and raise awareness to the work of the Palliative Care Team.

Presentations will be made throughout the day which the nurses hope visitors will find interesting and informative.

Janice Sedgewick, Lead Cancer and Palliative Care Nurse said: “Palliative care is the active holistic care of patients with advanced illness. The Macmillan Specialist Nurse Team support patients and those who care for them from diagnosis onwards. Offering advice on management of pain and other symptoms as well as making arrangements for social care. This event is aimed at encouraging more people to make use of the palliative care and associated services available to them in the borough. We want  to see as many people as possible so feel free to drop in on the day.”

Dr Sheila Will, Director of Public Health for the borough will also be making the closing remarks.

A wide variety of information will be available from the following organisations:

• Patient Advice Liaison Service (PALS)
• Local Cancer Support Groups
• Marie Curie
• Macmillan Cancer Support
• Springhill Hospice
• Bereavement Support
• Patient User Partnership Group
• The Rochdale Multi Faith Partnership
• Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council

Janice Sedgewick added: “It is great to have so many of our partners involved in the event. We hope that by working in partnership the highest possible standards of care are attained and the patient and carer experiences are greatly improved providing them with a seamless service from hospital into the community and vice versa.”