St Clare Hospice and Isabel Hospice are launching a joint initiative in January 2026: Hospice Alert Cards. These cards will help quickly identify patients under their specialist palliative care, ensuring better continuity across all care settings.
Please help share this information with your clinical teams and networks.
About the Hospice Alert Cards
The Hospice Alert Cards provide patients and their families/carers with a simple and recognisable way to indicate that they are receiving hospice care from St Clare Hospice or Isabel Hospice. This supports smoother communication and helps ensure that care is coordinated when patients interact with different healthcare services.
Patients will receive the card:
- From St Clare or Isabel Hospice Clinical Nurse Specialists during their initial assessment (unless deemed inappropriate)
- Upon discharge from their Inpatient Units following admission for symptom management
How the Hospice Alert Cards support hospital teams
For hospital clinicians and operational teams, the cards act as a prompt to:
- Contact the relevant hospice team for advice or support
- Access up-to-date palliative care information
- Facilitate timely referrals into hospice services (community and inpatient)
- Request family or carer support when appropriate
How you can help
You can support this initiative by:
- Sharing this information with relevant clinical teams, including ward staff, discharge coordinators, specialist palliative care teams and patient flow teams
- Including details about the Hospice Alert Cards on your internal communication channels (e.g., intranet, newsletters, staff briefings)
- Circulating the card images and key messages to help familiarise staff with the new tool
This collaborative initiative reflects their shared commitment to enhancing coordinated, compassionate care for people with life-limiting illnesses across our communities.