The hospice sector in the UK is almost entirely funded through voluntary contributions. Some hospices do have contracts in place to provide specialist care for appropriate NHS patients. In these cases funding arrangements are in place to cover the cost of these patients care. Even when such funding streams are in place there is a high emphasis placed on raising charitable donations from the local community to help fund the organisations.
The role of the hospice is to provide care and support for those whose disease is incurable. This is achieved through outpatient clinics, in-patient stay for symptom stabilisation and in-patient end of life events.
Due to their poor health, most of the patients within hospices are at very high risk of pressure damage. There are some specific requirements of equipment in hospice care; due to the nature of these homes low noise levels are very important, simple equipment functionality is normally required and high levels of patient comfort are essential particularly for very thin and/or frail patients.
The provision of pressure relieving equipment in hospices is very important to the staff as it fits within their ethos of relieving unnecessary suffering and providing comfort and dignity.
Equipment selection in hospices is based on the opinions of the home Matron, the local tissue viability services and the MacMillan nurse specialist. Depending on local arrangements, technical advice may also be sought from service engineers within Health Trust owned medical equipment departments and/or local equipment Loan Stores. The requirements of a hospice in terms of dynamic airflow mattresses tend to be different to those within the secondary sector. Patients will often undertake independent and / or assisted transfer to a commode, walker or wheelchair. The assistant is often a carer, sometimes a loved one or friend. It is therefore critical that stability of the mattress is sound (see Squirrel Diamond) so that the air chambers do not allow the patient to slip to the floor during wheelchair or walker transfer.
