What is Palliative Medicine?
Palliative Medicine is a medical specialty that focuses on relieving and reducing the experience and severity of pain and other disease symptoms. The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness.
The Palliative Medicine Team
A Consultant provided and Consultant led Palliative Medicine service was established in the Mid-West in January 2000. The department and service has grown since then and now comprises three Consultants in Palliative Medicine, Dr Marian Conroy, Dr Feargal Twomey and Dr Michael Lucey, two Specialist Registrars, one Registrar, two Senior House Officer’s (SHO’s) from the GP vocational training scheme and one Senior House Officer (SHO)from the Mid-West medical training scheme.
The medical consultants are shared appointments with the University Hospital Limerick and are members of the Joint Department of Medicine in the Mid-West. They also provide clinical support and guidance to the Clinical Nurse Specialists in St John’s Hospital, Limerick, Ennis General Hospital and Nenagh General Hospital.
Our Role
The focus of the department is to:
- Achieve and maintain the highest international standards of clinical care for patients and families
- Provide integration of care across palliative care services
- Support the professional teams in providing this care.
The department believes that education is a core component of specialist palliative care. We continue our activities in supporting and providing inter-disciplinary education and research. Academic links have been established with University of Limerick and Graduate Entry Medical students from UL have attended clinical placements in Milford Hospice since 2010.