Mercy Palliative Care

For health professionals

Please use the Mercy Palliative Care e-referral form (opens in new window) when referring to inpatient or community palliative care.

Mercy Palliative Care is a 24-hour community-based service providing support and assistance to patients diagnosed with advanced life-limiting illnesses including metastatic cancer, end-stage organ failure and advanced degenerative neurological conditions.

Mercy Palliative Care also provides support for families and caregivers, especially when carer burden or distress is high, or there are complex psychosocial needs.

How to prepare the patient

It is important that the patient and their carers are aware of the referral being placed to Mercy Palliative Care.

It can also be useful to explain that palliative care provides holistic support to patients and their carers by treating symptoms that may be physical, psychosocial, financial, emotional and/or spiritual.

It may also be helpful to explain that palliative care is care that helps people live their life as fully and as comfortably as possible when they have advanced disease that cannot be cured.

What/when you should refer to us

Mercy Palliative Care provides:

• clinical symptom assessment/management
• psychological and spiritual support
• bereavement support.

Palliative care is patient and family centred care provided for a patient with an active, progressive, advanced disease, who has little or no prospect of cure or who is nearing end of life, and for whom the primary treatment goal is to optimise the quality of life (PCA 2018).

Palliative care services can be provided in the home, residential aged care, inpatient palliative care unit and the outpatients clinic both based at Werribee Mercy Hospital.

Admission criteria includes:

• The patient has a progressive life limiting illness for which the primary goal is maximising quality of life and comfort.
• The patient must be residing in the listed local government areas:
  • Melbourne
  • Moonee Valley
  • Maribyrnong
  • Brimbank
  • Hobsons Bay
  • Melton
  • Wyndham

State government jurisdictions on apply to community palliative care not inpatient services at Werribee Mercy Hospital.

• Patient and/or carer has consented to a referral, understands the patient’s diagnosis and prognosis, and understands the need for palliative care.
• Referrals are made in collaboration with the primary health professional.

Mercy Palliative Care understands that at times it is unclear if the patient requires palliative care input, especially when the life-limiting illness is not cancer related.

The SPICT tool can be a useful guide to identify patients at risk of deteriorating and dying. If further clarification is needed please call to discuss the referrals with our palliative care intake nurse

Mercy Palliative Care Services

More information