"My dad in St Luke's Hospice"

All the staff at St Luke's have been fantastic. My dad has been there for 7 weeks now, longer than we expected, the care he receives is amazing.

My parent's 60th wedding anniversary will be at the end of May, when my dad was taken to the hospice we were not sure if he would be here to  celebrate this landmark occasion. When the staff at Luke's heard about this they pulled out all the stops to put on a party for my parents to celebrate their anniversary early. they worked with our family to make it a special day, two days  before the party I just wondered if it would be possible to get someone to give a blessing, not really expecting anything at such short notice. However, the social worker at the hospice went off and next thing we knew was that a minister had been booked to give the blessing.  The cakes, the balloons, the banners all made the day special.

This is just an example of the lengths the staff go to in looking after not just the patients but also the families.  My  dad always went to a social club to mark St George's day, this year it was no exception. The nursing staff dressed him in such a way that they were able to hide the catheter tubes and pouch and minimise the tubes through his nose to his stomach so that he could be at the club with dignity.

The grounds at the hospice are beautiful, even  with his illness my dad has enjoyed being wheeled out, in his bed, to enjoy the peace of the gardens.

all visitors are looked after, my dad gets lots of visitors but all are offered a cup of tea when they visit. One other thing we don't need to worry about is  visiting over lunch time as we can always order a sandwich if we arrive at 11:00 and are staying till 1:00 or 2:00 - we don't have to stress about organising our own lunches as we can always but a sandwich at the hospice. It's little things like that which make the hospice so special.

My dad was transferred to the hospice following a stay at the Northwick Park hospital where he received great care from all the medical staff. The only niggles I have is that it was not made clear that when he left hospital to go to the hospice the IV drip he was on, which essentially provided all the nutrition as could not eat, would be removed. Also, the cancer was causing a blockage in his stomach which we were told was operable though risky. we did discuss the risks with the doctor and felt that we would like to go ahead with the operation if it meant he could go home. Without the operation it would be more difficult to look after him at home and he would need to go to a hospice. However, the decision to operate was overturned by two other doctors, I wish we'd  been able to discuss this and understand why.