Sheffield palliative care team earn national medal for exemplary care
26 February 2026
Press contact | claudia.blake@nhs.net
The specialist palliative care team at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been presented with the Dundas Medal from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in recognition of the exemplary care they provide to patients requiring palliative care in hospital.
The team were praised for improving the provision of hospital palliative care for patients across the region. Their excellence in innovation, research and education was also recognised.
The specialist palliative care service runs seven days a week and offers in-person nursing and medical face-to-face reviews, rapid access outpatient clinics as well as an 18-bed specialist palliative care unit.
It is also at the forefront of innovation in palliative care. One example of this is a service for hard-to-treat cancers which have spread but the place where the primary cancer began is not known (cancers of unknown primary origin). For this group of patients, timely and shared decision-making between the patient and their healthcare workers is important to ensure the best course of action is taken.
Another innovation is the development of a cancer pain service in conjunction with the Trust’s pain management service. This takes referrals from across the region of patients with the hardest to manage pain and ensures patients have a holistic multi-disciplinary team (MDT) review, targeted pain intervention and palliative care advice and follow up.
In addition to improving palliative and end of life care, the team were also recognised for their excellence in research and education. They also deliver a wide range of training for medical students and regular structured shadowing and role modelling for doctors and nurses of all grades needing insights into palliative care.
Furthermore, a clinical nurse specialist from the team received a grant from Weston Park Cancer Charity to initiate an innovative bereavement bag project. The bags, which are designed to resemble a gift bag, are used to return a family member’s belongings once they have died (rather than a generic, white hospital bag). This offers a more respectful and dignified way to return a deceased one’s belongings.
James Davies, Palliative Medicine Consultant and Clinical Lead for Palliative Medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Providing respect, dignity, and comfort to hospital patients in the palliative phase of their illness is an incredible privilege. We are extremely proud of our service and what we have achieved. In winning this award, we hope to raise awareness of the importance of NHS hospital specialist palliative care services, and the profound impact this can have on relieving physical, psychosocial and spiritual suffering as patients and those important to them navigate their necessary acute hospital treatments.”
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