| Contact: | Vincent Acheson |
| Tel: | +44 1284 848186 |
| Email: | vincent@emms-nazareth.org |
Nazareth Hospital EMMS was a pioneer in the provision of palliative care in Galilee, and provided a dedicated service from 1991 – 1998. We seek once more to develop a an effective, holistic and distinctively Christian hospital-based palliative care service which addresses the needs and sensitivities of the (mainly Arab) population we serve, thus enhancing the quality of current patient care service for both terminally ill patients and those with chronic conditions who do not meet hospices’ admission criteria.
A renewed Nazareth Hospital Palliative Care Service will:
At present we run a a very low-key service within the hospital, using a small team consisting of a doctor, a nurse, a social worker and a tutor from the school of nursing, all of whom have other full-time roles.
This is the only hospital-based palliative care resource in the Nazareth area, and there is a medical clinical need for an enhanced service.
The "Sick Funds" (Israeli Health Insurance Providers) now operate a palliative care outreach service using hospice staff, but demand exceeds capacity, so that the service does not reach all patients, and the level of service is limited by scarce resources.
Developing excellent, holistic palliative care will be a a powerful witness of the Christian values underpinning our medical provision, and will provide a model which can be adopted elsewhere in Israel and other parts of the Middle East.