What is Palcall?
What callers can expect
Registering with Palcall
Who can call?
Opening hours
Confidentiality
Complaints Policy
Contact Us

What is Palcall?

Palcall is a palliative care, out of hours, telephone helpline for patients and carers. It is a nurse led service offering advice and information outside of normal surgery hours. This direct line is not available via the usual hospice telephone number.

What callers can expect

The Palcall telephone helpline gives direct access to a nurse with experience in specialist palliative care. This nurse is able to give advice and support within their level of competence. We are not able to send out nurses or doctors from the hospice but, if the patient needs attention, we will contact the on call NHS doctor or district nurse, on behalf of the caller.

Registering with Palcall

Patients wishing to use this palliative care out of hours service can be registered with Palcall by any healthcare professional involved in their care. The completed referral form enables the service to hold specific patient information which may be of use to the nurse taking the call. This information can also be used by out of hours doctors and district nurses visiting the patient.

Who can call?

When patients register with Palcall, they are able to name other people who might require advice from the service on their behalf. These named contacts might be partners, friends, relatives or carers.

The helpline service is available to patients and their named contacts, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Confidentiality

All patient information will be kept on a secure database. Health professionals using this information are legally bound to observe confidentiality. Patient information may be used for audit purposes, to monitor and improve standards. These audits will not include personal information such as names and address'.

Complaints Policy

Palcall aims to provide a service which is sensitive to the needs of individual patients, their families and carers. If problems do occur we try to resolve them when they arise. If this is not possible and you wish to make a complaint, please let us know as soon as possible. This will help us to establish what happened more easily.

Complaints can be directed to Palcall staff who will pass them to the manager responsible. Alternatively, you can write to the Director of Nursing, Ann Harper, at the address on this leaflet. If you would like more details about our complaints procedure a complaints leaflet is available from the hospice at the address on this leaflet.

Palcall is run jointly by Saint Catherine's Hospice and the Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale Primary Care Trust. It is funded by the New Opportunities Fund, (Big Lottery Fund).

For more information contact:

Mary Elliker
Saint Catherine's Hospice
FREEPOST NAT 19962
Scarborough
YO12 5BR (no stamp required)

tel: 01723 356039

MElliker@st-catherineshospice.org.uk