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When a patient is receiving end of life care, their comfort is always a priority for staff at Newcastle Hospitals, the well being of family and carers is also very important.

It's not unusual for those important to a patient to spend many days at their bedside either at home or in hospital and there can be added stresses felt at this time.

A Gift of Kindness aims to provide support during this period by offering some small additional comforts that we hope can make a big difference.

A Gift of Kindness can make a positive difference by providing additional comforts for families, friends and carers staying at a patients bedside either at Newcastle Hospitals or in the patients own home including the following:

Providing comfort packs for families staying at a patient’s bedside in one of our hospitals. The packs include toiletries, snacks, tissues, a neck pillow, puzzle books and other items to help visitors freshen up and make this time more comfortable. In a patients own home comfort packs can provide those extra items family and carers would not expect to need for example some fitted sheets for the hospital bed required to support the patients at home.

Through charitable donations to A Gift of Kindness we have also been able to provide a dedicated space at the Royal Victoria Infirmary called the RVI Haven to support families and carers of patients receiving end of life care at the RVI. The RVI Haven has facilities to make a meal. have a shower and just have some quiet time away to rest.

At the time of death we continue to care for our patients and their loved ones and can provide keepsakes and mementos in the form of hair lock bags and prints of hands or fingers. We can also provide cuddly toys, books and memory boxes to support children and grandchildren.

We also provide property bags to our Bereavement Office teams for returning patient property at appointments.

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