The Sheffield United FC Community Foundation is proud to support St. Luke’s Hospice in Sheffield, an organization which offers free services for individuals ages 18 and over who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. St, Luke’s Hospice helps patients to alleviate their pain and control their symptoms, giving them the best possible quality of life.
Assisting not only cancer patients, St Luke’s plays a central part in palliative care nursing and support networks in Sheffield, working closely with other agencies and organizations across the city. At its In Patient Centre, St. Luke’s Hospice accommodates 20 patients, offering 14 single-bedded rooms.
Teaching hospice
Regarded as a “teaching hospice,” St. Luke’s Hospice has a long tradition of supporting academic research and education in all aspects of palliative care. St. Luke’s Hospice proudly provides end-of-life and palliative care to 1,800 Sheffield residents annually, simultaneously supporting their careers and families.
St. Luke’s Hospice supports patients with terminal illnesses such as end stage kidney, lung, heart, or neurological conditions. In addition to assisting people living with cancer, St. Luke’s Hospice supports those diagnosed with HIV and dementia. It also partners with other organizations within Sheffield and beyond to share knowledge and support others with the ultimate goal of paving the way for better end-of-life care for all.
Supporting patients in their own homes
St. Luke’s Hospice supports patients in their own homes, recognizing that this is usually where they feel the most comfortable. Its In Patient Centre offers 24-hour palliative care, providing patients with tailored therapies. St. Luke’s offers holistic, personalized care plans to support each of its patients and their families and caregivers.
Eighty-eight percent of the patients that St. Luke’s supports are assisted in their own home or a care home by the organization’s Community Team. Operational seven days a week, 365 days a year, St Luke’s Community Team works with general practitioners, district nurses, allied health professionals, and community-based organizations to provide wrap-around care for patients throughout their illness, providing relief from symptoms and support to help them avoid hospital admissions, thereby improving their quality of life.
Empowering patients
St. Luke’s encourages patients to exercise autonomy over their care plans, empowering them to decide where they wish to live and be looked after. Its In Patient Centre provides around-the-clock palliative care specialists from a multidisciplinary team of experienced doctors, nurses, and healthcare staff to reduce pain and manage patients’ symptoms. Capable of accommodating up to 20 patients, the facility recently converted two single rooms into a family suite, providing a comfortable and supportive dedicated space for families to help their loved ones at the most difficult time. The suite has been designed in such a way that it can easily be converted back to two single rooms again should the need arise.
St. Luke’s Hospice’s Patient & Family Support Service provides a comprehensive package of practical, well-being, and spiritual support for patients and their families or caregivers, including bereavement support. Based at St. Luke’s Little Common Lane building, the Patient & Family Support Service also helps with social prescribing, providing an essential service focusing on non-medical interventions that add purpose and quality of life to those accessing St Luke’s care services.
Significant progress
Having recently begun delivering its Strategy 2025-2029, St. Luke’s Hospice is building on the significant progress achieved in its 2017 strategic review. Although its focus temporarily shifted to service continuity and team safety during the pandemic, the 2017 strategy was successfully concluded in 2023, placing the organization in a strong position moving forward.
In 2024, St. Luke’s Hospice’s clinical teams helped 1,752 individual patients through 2,474 spells of care. The hospice strives to provide continued and consistent support to patients and their families across all clinical services. Demand for its services remains high due to an upward trajectory in the complexity, acuity, and dependency of its patients. Catering to patients with cancer, as well as those with a range of respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological conditions like end-stage COPD, end-stage heart failure, and motor neuron disease, St. Luke’s accepted 1,277 referrals in 2024, with many of its service users referred multiple times.
A successful strategy
Across the UK today, an ever-increasing aging population is creating significant demand for complex care provisions. Against the backdrop of ongoing fiduciary pressure, St. Luke’s Hospice recognized the need for a strategy that not only protected its existing core services, but innovated new ways to build on them where possible.
Since 2023, St. Luke’s management team, board, and key stakeholders have strived to shape a strategy capable of meeting the considerable challenges ahead. Response to the new strategy has been overwhelmingly positive, with feedback from partners such as Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Healthwatch Sheffield, and South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board all confirming that St. Luke’s strategy aligns well with broader healthcare strategies.