History
Our Oncology Department belongs to the Hospital Universitario Gregorio Maranon, one of the largest hospitals in Spain. Patients can received the most sophisticated anti-cancer therapies, participate in clinical trials or receive expert palliative care when cure is not possible and end-ife is near, as well as early palliative care even to patients in active oncology treatment when required. The Oncology Department has its own building where multidisciplinary oncological activity developed, distributed in different floors, including Day ward, hospitalized in word, radiology, radiotherapy and surgery facilities. Our Palliative Care Unit is one of the oldest in Spain, being almost 30 years old.
Profile
There is constant communication among the different specialties involved in the attention and treatment of cancer patients to provide the most advanced medical care and support to the patients but also to their caregivers from early diagnosis, to provide the best treatment to each patient, access to clinical trials when appropriate and support treatment, early palliative care and specialized palliative symptom management, when cure is not possible Through the Tumor Board, the Oncology Department receives information about the new cancer cases diagnosed in our hospital. There, the new cases are evaluated and multidisciplinary medical care are coordinated. This evaluation and multidisciplinary medical care, is maintained all through the different stages of the disease (surgery, radiotherapy, medical oncology treatments, clinical trials palliative care Palliative Care Unit receives its request to attend oncology patients from different sources: Tumor Board recommendation, outpatients oncology clinic, hospitalized patients. patients in different medical or surgical wards or patients at the emergency room, required
Specialities
Our Oncology Department is deeply committed to a philosophy of continuity of care and non-abandonment, following a design to provide an Integral care from diagnosis, cure if it is possible, improvement of quality and quantity of life, all the way through the treatment process and end-of-life stage. We are firmly committed with those advanced-cancer patients whom not longer benefit from active anti-tumor therapies, in fact we strongly believe they deserves specialized symptom management provided inside the oncology setting. In the last years, we have increased the support given to cancer patients during the oncology treatment through early palliative cancer manegement, providing benefit for the patients and the different professionals involved. A trained Support Palliative Team works inside the Oncology Department in close cooperation with others Services and Units. Twenty-four hours attention is offered to our in patients with a senior and two resident oncologist on-call availability. The Support Palliative Team attend patients at the emergency room daily when required: Our Department admits palliative patients for in-patient care, referred from the emergency room when needed. We facilitate out-patient follow-up, coordinated with palliative home care assistance provided by family physicians with specific training in palliative care, in close relation with our Department. We have an Out-patient Clinic as part of the Palliative Care Unit, where we enroll patients in earlier stages of the palliative medical stage, even patients who are receiving active oncology treatments, working hand by hand with the oncologists, as well as patients in the last stages of the oncology disease near end-of-life. This approach of care for cancer patients has been proven successful and,in the last years, our Hospital is promoting and expanding this standard of palliative care to other severe non-oncology disease as terminal respiratory and/or heart failure, neurological conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis...etc
Palliative and Supportive Care
When patients with palliative care needs are identified, especially if complex demands are present, can be easy and quickly referred to the Support Palliative Team to be evaluated and attended as appropriate if needed, hospitalized palliative care is provided versus coordination with family doctors and ambulatory palliative care, emergency room palliative care attention or offering follow-up in our palliative out-patient clinic. We have reinforce our collaboration with oncologist providing support, not only at the final stages of the cancer disease, but early palliative care to patients receiving active oncology treatment. We are able to provided high-quality supportive and palliative care under the responsibility and coverage of the Oncology Department, with the collaboration from others needed disciplines: surgery,radiotherapy, psycho-oncology, social workers, rehabilitation. Twenty four hours in patient care is warranty with three oncologist on duty (one senior and two residents) who attend hospitalized cancer patients, as well those who needs attention at the emergency room. They can help and give expert advise to other medical specialist on duty attending to cancer patients.
Last update: November 2020
