My name is Debbie Sharkey and I am one of the nurses in the Inpatient Unit here at Northern Ireland Hospice. Our job is to offer dedicated, compassionate care to every patient during their final weeks and days. But, we have a problem...  

An increasing number of patients arrive with us these days with multiple, complex medical conditions, needing immediate nursing attention. It’s crucial that we can diagnose and treat their symptoms as quickly as possible. Because, as you can imagine, time is precious for the patient and their families. Keeping an eye on patients’ vital signs is a crucial part of getting the care right straight away. We achieve this by taking frequent readings of a patient’s blood pressure, checking their heart rate and monitoring their breathing. Most of the time, we have to do this manually – but our challenge today is that more of our patients are needing this ‘intensive’ monitoring and specialist nursing care. 

We need a better solution for our patients – and this is why we need your help. 

There is a new generation of computerised monitoring equipment now available to buy that can keep track of all these vital signs automatically – and it can be linked to our nurse-call system. So, we can set the monitor up for someone who’s very poorly and leave it running in the room – knowing that if there’s a sudden change we’ll be alerted immediately so we can react straight away. It’s better for the patient and their family because we’re not in and out of their room the whole day disturbing them and it’s better for us because we can devote our time where it’s needed most, knowing our patients are being safely monitored. Having access to this new patient monitor technology at the hospice would mean that we can offer the very best care for our patients. 

Please support this Urgent Equipment Appeal and bring better care & comfort to hospice patients.