Our hard-working doctors, nurses, health and social care teams deliver essential care to our community day and night helping those with life-limiting illness- es, and their families, cope with the impact of their disease. This doesn’t stop because of COVID-19.

To protect patients and staff, we’ve closed the public areas at our hospice although the inpatient unit remains open with necessary restrictions on visitors. Our clinical teams are doing an incredible job caring for our patients here with compassion and understanding. The staff are also help- ing patients use technology for video calls to stay in touch with family and friends...

In our community, to reduce the risk of infection, we’ve greatly increased our telephone contact making sure we keep in touch with everyone, helping them feel supported. The biggest thing for us is that ‘The Hub’ - our 24-hour advice line – continues to run, providing the constant support that our patients are used to.

Niks Kent who leads our family and patient support team has created a ‘virtual welfare centre’ to look after people who may be particularly isolated.

For some, our day services and social groups might be their only social contact, so we’re maintaining telephone interaction with that group of people; we’re still providing support, just in a different way. Conversations are hard, while some patients are coping well with the changes in their world, others are understandably distressed with the changes to their care or treatment or trying to manage unexpected loneliness.

We’re making sure we’ve got the right kit (PPE) to keep our staff and patients safe. Our nurses are still seeing people in their homes across Brighton, Hove and the Havens, but they’re trying to do as much of the assessment as they can over the phone before they go in; to limit the amount of time in homes.

Although there’s a lot we can do on the phone, particular tasks do require you to be there with a patient. Administer- ing medication is a big one and examining patients can be crucial, so we assess on a case by case basis.

Helping us to Keep Caring

A huge thank you to everyone who’s donated to our Martlets Crisis Appeal www.martlets.org.uk/crisis-appeal 

All our charity shops are closed and our fundraising events have been cancelled so these vital funds are helping us keep caring. Please continue to support us as a charity. We want patients and families to be able to make the most of the precious time they have, now more than ever.