Background: Hummingbird House Children’s Hospice opened in 2016 delivering palliative care services including end of life care and after death care to babies and children from antenatal diagnosis up to age 18 years. Antenatal and neonatal referrals to the hospice have grown significantly over this time, with 101 referrals since opening and 75% of these referrals since 2019. In response to this increase and in recognition of the need to ensure specialist skills, collaboration and resources within this area of palliative care, the PAN-PC group was established in 2019. Initially a small group of professionals with a special interest in neonatal palliative care came together from Hummingbird House, Mater Mothers Hospital, Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital, Neonatal Retrieval Emergency Service, South Queensland (NeoRESQ) and the Paediatric Palliative Care Service. Membership has since grown into a State-wide working group with members from the Gold Coast up to Townsville and across all professional disciplines of palliative care, maternal and fetal medicine, midwifery, neonatal intensive care and patient transport.
Aim: The aim of this presentation is to use a case study approach to demonstrate and share the resources, practices and innovations developed from the PAN-PC working group. The case study presented will follow the palliative care journey of a baby and family from referral to transfer from Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to Hummingbird House, including the innovative skin to skin retrieval care developed by the NeoRESQ. Through this presentation, the audience will have the opportunity to hear about responsive and effective inter-agency working, alongside partnership with parents every step of the way to ensure the individual family needs and wishes are upheld in a compassionate transfer for end of life care.
Conclusion: Palliative care for babies is a specialised area of care and is best approached from an inter-agency and inter-disciplinary perspective, and in partnership with parents, to support individualised and holistic care in the family’s place of choice. The PAN-PC working group has been instrumental in developing quality practice that is efficient, compassionate and innovative.