St Luke’s strengthens links with Hospice Africa

Hospice Africa was founded by Dr Anne Merriman 30 years ago with the vision of offering palliative care for all those in need in African countries, with Uganda identified as the best host for a centre of excellence.

Links between St Luke’s and the Hospice Africa Ugandan team were formed last year when St Luke’s nurse Emma Matthews spent two months working with staff and patients in the Ugandan capital Kampala and the surrounding area, supporting and observing services.

That was followed up with a visit to Sheffield by Ugandan palliative care nursing specialists Dianah Basirika and Roselight Katusabe.

And strengthening those bonds even further, St Luke’s has now hosted a visit by trustees of both Hospice Africa UK and Hospice Africa Ireland, two charities that help to promote and support palliative care in Africa both through Hospice Africa Uganda and The Anne Merriman Foundation.

The day gave the visitors the opportunity to speak to St Luke’s chief executive Peter Hartland and St Luke’s chief nurse and director of care Jo Lenton about ways in which the relationship can be developed.

“We will be discussing more formal links and potentially exciting projects across all aspects of palliative care, learning, collaboration, research and charity management, not only in Uganda but across the continent of Africa” said Peter.

“Whilst St Luke’s roots remain in Sheffield, everyone can benefit from mutual learning with colleagues across the world.

“We hope that these will also bring exciting development opportunities for St Luke’s staff so that we understand more about providing palliative care appropriate to each person.”

Chris Merriman, the chair of Hospice Africa UK said: “We sincerely appreciate the warm welcome and positive discussions we experienced at St. Luke’s and were impressed with what we saw and heard.

“We look forward to strengthening our partnership going forward and the benefits for all this will bring.”