Work on new end-of-life unit at hospital progressing well

Work to create a new five-bed unit to help make patients more comfortable in their final days of life at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital is making good progress.Named after the famous national trail that weaves through Suffolk and Norfolk, the end-of-life Peddars Way Unit has been specially designed to provide a calming and peaceful space outside of the busy hospital wards.Designed for patients who are unable to move from the hospital, this unit located in a new modular building is due to open this autumn.

Officials said that the Norfolk Hospice, Tapping House, at Hillington “guided and advised the unit’s development”, further adding that it is “not an alternative” to the hospice.Funding for the new unit has been provided by the hospital’s own QEHKL Charity with contributions from the League of Friends charity.Each room is said to feel far less clinical, having restful and calming lighting and specially commissioned artwork – funded by the League of Friends drawing upon the individual themes.

Influenced by the beauty of nature along Peddars Way, the rooms will be called Blossom, Lavender, Meadow, Oak and Willow. CEO Alice Webster, who has driven the project forward, said: “As a nurse and having worked closely with the Palliative and End of Life team, I have long recognised the need for a dedicated end-of-life unit at the QEH.“Some of our patients in the final hours and days are too ill to move elsewhere and receive end-of-life care on our wards. Our Peddars Way Unit will provide them and their loved ones a place of outstanding care, dignity and comfort. “We have very strong relationships with The Norfolk Hospice Tapping House who provide a wonderful service to so many local families when they need it most. I am hugely grateful for their support and advice which has been invaluable in shaping our plans.“Giving people an opportunity to spend those final precious moments together, away from the business of the main hospital, is so important. I hope our new unit will go some way to bringing comfort during a very distressing time.”It is anticipated that there will be numerous additional items required to give the Peddars Way Unit the soothing environment that the team involved in its creation aspire to provide.Reporting by Hannah Tuttle