Palliative Home Care

Hospis Malaysia’s Home Care service is provided primarily by the assigned nurse, who is supported by members of the interdisciplinary team, which include Palliative Care doctors, nurses, a pharmacist, a clinical psychologist, and an occupational therapist. Hospis Malaysia’s interdisciplinary team is made up of an integrated group of clinical staffs who work closely together throughout the course of care to find effective solutions to address needs of patients.

To Hospis Malaysia,each patient is an individual first, and every illness - highly personal. Two people with the same disease may require quite different management. As such, members of our clinical team are carefully guided through daily sharing & discussion sessions during which the entire team openly studies each case at hand to find the best means of care for patients and their families.

Hospis Malaysia believes that patients as well as their families have the right to set the tone for care. Nurses who carry out assessment of new patients are required to have an open discussion with patients and their families right from the beginning to understand how best can Home Care work to help improve the quality of life of patients.

Our 9 nurses and 4 doctors make approximately 600-700 home visits a month. Visits are made not only to homes but also to hospitals and nursing homes. In 2005, 950 patients were referred to Hospis Malaysia. Year 2006 recorded a total referral of 1183 patients. As in previous years, the vast majority of patients referred to Hospis Malaysia are those with cancer, namely cancers of the lung, breast and colorectal cancers.

Patients who are referred to Hospis Malaysia are usually assessed within 48 hours after acceptance of the referral. Assessment is made in the context of physical symptoms, emotional and psychological issues, social issues and the patients’ understanding of the impact of the illness on his/her life.

Once assessment is done, the Hospis Malaysia team will :-

prioritise the problems with the patient & family
propose a plan of management
administer medication (if necessary)
recommend medical equipment (if necessary)
request for skills of other members of our interdisciplinary team, eg. occupational therapist, clinical psychologist etc. (if necessary)

Frequency of visits by nurses will depend on individual cases, and can vary from once a fortnight to daily if the patient’s condition is noted to worsen rapidly. Hospis Malaysia also has a 24-hour on-call service that attends to emergencies & queries (of patients) at any time.

Loan of Medical Equipment

Equipment such as oxygen concentrators, syringe drivers, suction machines, nebulisers, pulse oximeters, ripple mattresses, hospital beds, wheelchairs, commodes, sheepskin rugs, air cushions etc. are available for patients to borrow at no charge. Patients who require use of any medical equipment available at Hospis Malaysia must first refer to the nurses who attend to them. Hospis Malaysia will only release equipment based on nurses' approval.


Hospital Bed & Ripple Mattress	Wheelchairs

Syringe Driver	Pulse Oximeter

Oxygen Concentrator