A GROUP of nurses are today (Friday) launching a vital new service to provide Haslemere residents with hospice care in their own homes. PALLS (Palliative Service) was set up by a group of 19 nurses who were made redundant when the King Edward VII Hospital near Midhurst closed more than a year ago. But today the nurses are at Wispers School to launch a scheme to provide people in Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire with a unique 'Hospice at Home' service using the skills of health care assistants, qualified nurses and senior nurses. Jacinta Grange-Bennett, director of PALLS, and a staff nurse at King Edward VII Hospital for more than four years, came up with the idea and has been supported by her colleagues and husband Nicholas in setting up the service. She told The Herald the nurses from the hospital had decided to get together because "we love what we do and we wanted to give something back after we lost the Macmillan unit providing end-of-life care". "It is really because we do not want to stop doing what we do." Not all the PALLS staff worked at the King Edward Macmillan unit, with some coming to the service having previously worked in other departments. Ms Grange Bennett said it had been a "struggle" over the past year to get the service ready to launch, including carrying out extensive criminal records checks and registering PALLS nurses to provide care in the home. But she added the team had received "wonderful support" from St Wilfrid's Hospice in Chichester to help provide ongoing palliative training. PALLS is now based in offices at the Passfield Business Centre, just outside Liphook. The new base also houses the last bed from the King Edward VII Hospital, which was saved by the nurses and is now used for training exercises. The service is also linked with the Haslemere-based Apollo group, which provides home care around the town. Jacinta said the reaction from members of the public had been "amazing" and said families were "so grateful for the service we provide". She also said PALLS was actively looking to recruit more staff. Jacinta said: "We are beginning to realise, the more we are out there, the more need there is for nurses". She went on to say the needs of each patient were individually assessed and depended on the nature and progress of the condition being dealt with. Jacinta said nurses could visit a house two or three times at any point during the day or night, on every day of the week if required. She said PALLS staff continued to support families, even after the death of a patient. She also pointed out government policy dictated that anyone receiving end-of-life care has the right to choose whether to die at home or in hospital. PALLS has provided care for 19 patients since last August, with the majority of their work coming from primary care trusts across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex. They also liaise with district nurses and GPs, and Jacinta said she believed this mean PALLS was "pioneering a new concept in the hospice movement" which makes the service "unique". Jacinta said there was a clear need for end- of-life care in the area, and in particular for nurses qualified to deliver the proper medication and to oversee and administer care. Jacinta said: "It's been a wonderful experience and we want to see it extend and expand in the way we know it should because it's so needed, so this is quite an exciting situation". The launch of the PALLS service comes almost exactly a year after the shock closure of the King Edward VII Hospital. The hospital closed after private health company Capio pulled out of a deal to build a new 120-bed hospital on the site, as part of an overall conversion which would also have seen 200 luxury apartments and the development of a further 166 homes in the 120-acre grounds. The announcement left more than 200 full- and part-time staff out of work, and also saw the closure of the hospital's Macmillan Cancer Unit. Jacinta said she hoped former MP Virginia Bottomley and current Chichester MP Andrew Tyrie would be attending the launch, but added Jeremy Hunt, MP for South West Surrey, had already sent the group his apologies and informed the group he would be unable the launch. Other guests at the launch are expected to include university professors who have a noted interest in health issues related to life- limiting illnesses, and relatives of patients who have died from such conditions. The launch will also feature a speaker from Lynn Foulds Wood's Bowel Cancer Campaign.
