Forest Holme - Specialist Palliative Care Unit
Forest Holme is a purpose-built specialist palliative care unit which forms part of the Medical Clinical Care Group at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
The unit is situated a short distance from the main hospital and offers a tranquil setting for the care of patients and their families. It has facilities for outpatients, specialist nurses working both within the community and in the hospital, counselling support and teaching on the ground floor, and ten beds for inpatients on the first floor.
It deals especially with the physical and psychological comfort of patients with complex needs and also provides support and advice to carers, family and friends. Our philosophy is to provide a safe environment which makes holistic care available to patients who have serious illnesses, and to provide support to their families. The care is individually tailored to meet the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of all those coming into contact with staff based at Forest Holme, in order that all kinds of distress be reduced to a minimum.
Care is given by a courteous and appropriately qualified multiprofessional team with the intention of restoring as much choice and control to patients as is feasible within the constraints of their illness.
Our normal catchment area is Poole, Wimborne and the Purbecks. Elsewhere in Dorset, similar services are provided through the Macmillan Unit in Christchurch for those living in Bournemouth, Ferndown and surrounding areas, and by Weldmar Hospicecare Trust for residents of North and West Dorset.
Forest Holme takes its name from the Victorian house that originally stood on the site. The unit was dedicated by the late Roy Castle OBE on 3 July 1993, and was officially opened by the Lady Romsey on 9 January 1995.