Community palliative care team

Our 19 community nursing teams (based in four community wards across Wandsworth) deliver care across the borough and are responsible for delivering the appropriate palliative care to the patients on their caseload.

Gillian Best, clinical team leader for community nursing, said: “End of life care is a significant part of our work and always involves the multi-disciplinary team (MDT). This is usually made up of the GP, community nursing team, night service community nursing team, clinical nurse specialists from the acute sector and from the hospices, as well as therapists and social services.

“We provide all the hands-on care for this group of patients, right up to and including their last day of life if they have chosen to be cared for at home. We receive specialist advice and support from the clinical nurse specialists in the hospices who are part of the MDT, but are not actively hands-on.”

“The care we provide for this group of patients is probably the most privileged and rewarding aspect of being a community nurse.”