You've got two choices, quality or quantity, what would you like? If you've got quality of life, you've got everything you need. We're all going to die sometime and I want to take as much time, while I'm here I want to enjoy myself as much as I can.
St Luke's Hospice in Sheffield has been treating the terminally ill for 45 years. No one here will be cured, but this is far more than a place where people come to die. We spent a week at St Luke's talking to staff, patients and their families as they confront the end of life. Every day starts like this, a meeting of nurses, doctors and consultants who...
treat the majority of St Luke's 1500 patients in their own homes. The community team liaises with GPs and hospitals prioritising those most in need. Get a visit.
from the rapid response team. Connor is a palliative care nurse. It's just a really nice feeling to know that you can support someone in what's obviously a terrible time for them. I think people are frightened of death. I think that we all know it's coming to us, it's one of the only certain things in life.
But I don't think it's something that we tend to think about very much. We went with him to visit Jean Knight. She's gravely ill with cancer, but determined to remain at home with husband Richard.
Hi, Jean. Hi, Peter. All right. I'm good, thank you. How are you?
I'm all right, darling. Nice to see you. The last few months since Christmas, I've gone down.
You know what I mean? But it's just that it's come back everywhere, practically riddled in it, really. It's in my brain, it's in my bones, it's in my spine, it's everywhere. You know what I mean? So it's just something that you learn to live with.
You make that sound. You say that like people talk about... about having a headache.
That's it. How do you stay that positive? You have to. Because if you don't, you lose your quality of life.
That's what you're here for. You've got two choices. Quality or quantity. What would you like?
Quality. You know what I mean? If you've got quality of life... You've got everything you need.
As Jean's primary carer, the hospice supports Richard too. I can ring St Luke's up and I can talk to a doctor or I can talk to a nurse and they will sort it. They can then ring...
our pharmacy and get them to deliver their medications or allow me to go and pick them up. There's times when I can have my really bad days and I think, oh, come on, Jean, now. You know, pull yourself together. Because if you don't, you're going to go down.
So I pull myself together and that's how you get it back. You know what I mean? Positivity.
That's always at the top, positivity. You have to stay like that, because if you don't, you lose your life. Back at St Luke's, Judith Park shows...
us round the inpatient ward. I think people tend to think when patients come into the inpatient centre in a hospice they're coming in to die. They're not.
About 35% of our patients are discharged home but they all have a terminal illness. So this is our spa room. There's even a whirlpool bath that comes complete with a light show, a small luxury and a way for patients living with illness to relax.
We are scared as a society. I think we are starting to shift slowly. I think there's a big public health message around death and dying because actually, you know, again, back to the lady who's pregnant, she gets a bounty pack. That's standard and has been for years in this country.
We don't give people a death pack telling them, these are the things you need to think about and this is what is really important. at some point in your life. One, two, three. Clive Smith, a former royal engineer with cancer, was admitted to St Luke's more than once. But they didn't just treat him, they supported his family too.
Daughter Julie was so impressed after his first admission last year, she applied for a job and joined the housekeeping team. And Clive's granddaughter, Lauren, is in a bereavement support group recommended by the hospice. It's like a group where I can just do whatever I want.
You can express your feelings by doing art, and they just help you if you really need to talk to them. They can take you in a room, talk to you, and then whatever stays in that room, it doesn't come back out. When you come here, obviously...
They're here, first and foremost, for that patient. But then once they're in here, you realise that they're not. They help mum, dad, nana, grandad.
There is something there for you. Excellent, saying it from the doctor. A few days after this, Clive died at St Luke's, surrounded by his family. They're mentioning my name.
Most patients first come to St Luke's long before their conditions deteriorate. The day centre provides physical and creative therapy, advice and sometimes just company for patients dealing with terminal disease. So it's better than a hotel. Pamela Walker, who has cancer, has been coming since she was told she had 18 months to live.
That was three years ago. While I'm here, I want to enjoy myself as much as I can. If you sit here and think, oh, I've got to die tomorrow and I've got to plan this, I don't want that. I've sutted my burial out. That's all done with now.
I'm just going to enjoy myself. One of St Luke's secrets is in the kitchen. This is no ordinary hospital food. Individual leek and smoked head at tarts, that's served with champ mash or poached egg.
Chef Nick Wilkes runs it like a restaurant, adapting meals to meet the demands of patients. for whom eating may be one of the last pleasures remaining. Tell me about the powders and the reforming sandwiches, because people struggle to eat. So we make, we put, like, funky powders and, like, kind of reform sandwiches and scones and cakes. cakes but they're soft but they don't look they look like a cake but they can taste like one but they're soft so they can swallow them appetites come and go and people are struggling to eat for various reasons what you try and eat but when when they can eat yeah definitely yeah yeah that's where the lasting like we're like the willy wonkers of my hospital that's what we try to be i think for the very ill like julie drakeley the small things can make a huge difference Thanks, Don.
She has motor neurone disease and needs round-the-clock care, but comes to St Luke's once a month to use the bath. I've got a condition that I'm never going to be made better from. And I've known that for seven years. But coming to St Luke's. It makes me realise the people don't do care.
It's also helped her come to terms with how she wants to die. The thought of dying in a traditional hospital bed haunts me. It's the thought of the tiny St Luke's with the beautiful room, with beautiful surroundings, with people who are smart, people who know me, who are listening to me, who have time for me.
It feels totally different. This book in the chapel lists the names of every St Luke's patient who's died day by day. It's a poignant reminder of the reality of the work that is done here and at more than 200 hospices across the UK that between them treat more than 200 people. than 200,000 people.
That is just 40% of those who would benefit from some kind of expert end of life care. See how it goes over the next couple of days. If you find that you're getting more side population demand for hospice services is growing fast but funding is not.
St. Luke's is a charity and with just 25% of its budget coming from the NHS it has to raise six million pounds every year from shops and public donations. On average just 30% of hospice funding comes from the NHS and last year two-thirds of that was cut or frozen. St. Luke's chief executive believes more reliable funding could be used to support the NHS. could help hospices ease the pressure on the NHS by caring for more people who currently die in hospitals.
If you took a poll across all of my peers across the country and their teams, there would be a consensus that, yes, we would like to see better funding for not just hospice care but palliative care in general. We are after a more level playing field for what would be seen as being essential services in our city. And we... Without those, I think the whole of the healthcare sector in Sheffield would be worse off and struggle.
Hospices help patients who no longer have hope of a cure and families facing up to loss by doing lots of little things well. Take this garden. It's designed so that a patient in a bed can be wheeled around. And it's by doing things like that, offering an hour in the sun. A favourite meal to someone who perhaps can barely eat or providing staff who can answer the hardest of questions that they restore dignity and humanity to death.
Jean Knight's family is just one of those who have benefited. A month after we went to see her, we were told she had died. The end of life was at home, and that's just how she wanted.
And we all wanted her there, because, as I say, I didn't want her to be in hospital. These hospices and things like that, they are fantastic places, but you can't be being at home and having all your family around. It couldn't have been any better, really, you know.
The NHS is supposed to carry us from cradle to grave, but it is often hospices like St Luke's that help complete the journey. If more of us are to benefit from their unique expertise and have a chance at a good death, hospices may need to rely on more than charity. Paul Kelso, Sky News.