Palliative care

There are 2 hospital based Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialists in Palliative care at C&W, who are Gary Artiss and Natasha Ryan. Both Gary and Natasha work closely with our Palliative Care Consultant Dr Sarah Cox and a team of doctors in training.

Gary and Natasha work within a multiprofessional team, seeing patients within the hospital offering advice and support to those who have an illness that may not be curable, as well as seeing their relatives/carers for support.

Our aim is to maximise quality of life and lessen suffering by addressing the emotional, physical, spiritual and social needs of patients and carers.

We can review patients on a regular basis whilst they are an inpatient advising on their symptom control needs (ie pain, nausea, breathlessness, fatigue etc), offering psychological support, providing information/advice as well as acting as a link between the doctors and nurses treating the patient.

We are also available to give some assistance/advice with social/financial issues and we can help in the process of making referrals (if appropriate) to the community palliative care teams.

Gary and Natasha can also often help the patient and their family/carers to decide on their preferred place of care/death. This could either be at home, in a hospice or even a care home.

We would liaise with the appropriate services, such as the OT/Physio/Social services/Community Palliative care team/District nurses and GP’s to achieve this goal. Dr Cox also works in the community in partnership with Trinity Hospice in Clapham.

Gary and Natasha are generally available between the hours of 8am and 6pm Monday–Friday and can be contacted on 020 3315 8499 or 020 3315 8268 (answer phone).