Specialised palliative care - an inspection

The atmosphere is warm and welcoming; you don't feel like you're in a hospital. Soft colours, green plants and seating areas make the new palliative care centre at Bethesda Hospital feel cosy. It is quiet in the long corridor, the large patient rooms are bright and modernly furnished and the nurses and doctors are not dressed in white, they wear inviting blue.

The former Hildegard Palliative Care Centre has found a worthy new home at Bethesda Hospital. The 20 beds of the new ward have been in operation at Gellertstrasse 144 since Christmas 2024. Bethesda Hospital has thus expanded its portfolio and created a modern, respectful space for specialised palliative care in north-western Switzerland.

The palliative care centre cares for and treats people with serious incurable illnesses. "Our aim is to give them the best possible quality of life and provide them with intensive support during their individual phase of life," says Prof. Jan Gärtner, Head Physician at the Palliative Care Centre. Most patients have cancer, lung or nerve diseases and associated acute symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, bowel obstruction and nausea. "We can usually treat the classic pain of a palliative illness, such as tumour pain or shortness of breath, very well."

Best possible quality of life

However, it is not only medication that can provide relief, but also dialogue and therapy. "In specialised palliative care, cooperation between a wide range of specialists from different fields is therefore extremely important," Professor Gärtner emphasises. This includes a very broad-based team of doctors, from nephrologists and internists to neurologists and pain therapists. There is also physiotherapy and music therapy, psychological support and aromatherapy. An experienced pastoral care and psychology team is on hand to help with spiritual and psychological issues. The social service helps with organisational and social challenges. Volunteers who support the patients and visit them with their therapy dogs round off the wide range of services for the benefit of the patients and their relatives.

Specialised palliative care also means specialised nursing care. "80 per cent of our nursing staff have specialised training in palliative care," explains Beatrix Werner, Head of Nursing at the Bethesda Palliative Care Centre. Wherever possible, care is tailored to the individual needs of patients. "A landlady who has worked long past midnight all her life no longer has to change her rhythm of life at 80 and can sleep longer in the morning," the specialist explains vividly.

The specialised palliative care centre is not a hospice

"We only get to know the last millimetre of a patient's life," explains Head of Nursing Beatrix Werner. This makes it all the more important to involve the relatives. "They know the person and their values and know what is important to them and what is not." There is a beautifully designed relatives' room in the middle of the palliative care centre: there is plenty of space and time for discussions with relatives and loved ones. If they want to stay close to their loved ones during a difficult phase of their lives, relatives can also spend the night there. In the so-called "Stübli", a pretty lounge, relatives can meet with their loved ones, eat together or spend some time in the living room atmosphere.

During the last phase of life, during dying and after death, the specialists at the Bethesda Hospital Palliative Care Centre provide individual support for the patients and relatives entrusted to them. However, as the palliative care centre is not a hospice, not all patients die on the ward. Around half of them can move to a nursing home or home after their stay. This is where the Mobile Palliative Care Team comes into play. doctors from the palliative care centre, together with Onko-Spitex and in collaboration with GPs, provide outpatient care. "Our patients should feel seen, felt and left as they are, regardless of where they receive support," summarises Prof. Dr Jan Gärtner.

Basel aktuell/Regio aktuell 3/2025 (©BirsForum Medien GmbH)