Home Hospital Bed Department (Palliative Care Center)

Ningyang Hospice was established on August 20, 2001, and officially inaugurated on September 1 of the same year. It is an institution established through funding from the Li Ka-shing Foundation in cooperation with the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, dedicated to providing free home medical services for impoverished patients with advanced cancer pain. Ningyang medical services bring medical care to patients’ homes, inquire about changes in their condition and pain, understand their emotional and psychological state, listen to the needs of patients and their families, and instruct family members on how to care for patients and communicate effectively with them, thereby effectively improving patients’ quality of life during the final stage of life and enabling them to truly feel the love and warmth of humanity.

Service mission: People-oriented, whole-person care, and improvement of the quality of life of impoverished patients with advanced cancer pain.

Service objectives: To relieve cancer pain and uncomfortable symptoms, enabling patients with advanced cancer to live meaningfully and with dignity during the final stage of life; to provide advanced cancer patients with comprehensive physical, psychological, spiritual, and social care; to reduce the suffering of patients’ families following the loss of a loved one, so that both the living and the deceased may be at peace.

Service methods: Free home visits, outpatient consultations, telephone follow-up visits and consultations. No inpatient beds are available.

Services provided: Control or alleviate patients’ pain and accompanying symptoms; provide home-care guidance; provide social, psychological, and spiritual counseling; help patients and their families reduce psychological stress; caregiver guidance; bereavement counseling; conduct publicity and education on knowledge of palliative care; volunteer services, etc.

Service recipients: The eight-character guideline of “poverty, cancer, advanced stage, and pain” must be observed; the service area is within 50 kilometers of the main urban districts of Chongqing.

Special strengths: Free, home-based, standardized analgesic treatment and whole-person physical-psychological-social-spiritual services are provided to eligible cancer patients.

Personnel: 1 associate chief physician, 2 attending physicians, 2 nurse supervisors (1 of whom also serves as a social worker), 1 nurse, 1 administrative assistant, 1 driver, and several volunteers.

Materials required for services: (1) The original disease diagnosis certificate issued by a Grade II Class A or higher-level hospital (bearing the special seal for medical certificates); (2) a certificate of poverty or financial difficulty issued by the residents’ committee or villagers’ committee at the place of household registration or temporary residence; or a photocopy of the minimum living security certificate; or completion of the “Ningyang Service Application Form”—one of these three options must be selected; (3) the original and photocopy of the identity cards of the patient and family members.

Service procedures: Family members bring the prepared materials to Ningyang Hospice. After the staff review and approve them, registration and collection of relevant information are completed. In the order of registration, Ningyang Hospice staff conduct home visits, and family members come to accompany and guide them at the time agreed by telephone. Medical, nursing, and social-work staff assess the patient and provide guidance. Family members go to Ningyang Hospice at the prescribed time to complete the medication collection procedures, collect the medicines from the pharmacy, and receive guidance on supervising the patient’s medication.

Service achievements: Since its establishment, Ningyang Hospice has provided standardized pain treatment and psychological, social, and spiritual medical services to nearly 10,000 patients with advanced cancer, receiving favorable comments from patients and their families and demonstrating the public-service nature of public hospitals.