In hospitals, there are specialist palliative care teams who help hospital staff to care for people nearing the end of their life.

Palliative care teams provide education, training and specialist advice to hospital doctors, nurses and other health and social care professionals on pain and symptom control to hospital doctors, nurses and other health and social care professionals. They can help staff with your discharge plan or your transfer to a hospice, community hospital or care home.

Palliative care teams can also provide emotional support and information to you and your family or carers. They can explain to you what is going on, and also make sure you know about your rights and choices about end of life care. If there is anything you want to know, ask your doctor or nurse. There is more detailed information for carers about support, rights and benefits in Carers Direct: end of life issues.

Different areas have different sized palliative care teams. The team may include a number of professionals, such as doctors, nurses, social workers and chaplains or religious ministers, or there may be just one person. 

The palliative team is sometimes called the Macmillan support team or symptom control team. When there is no cure for an illness, end of life care aims to make the end of your life as comfortable as possible.

Find out about care at home, care in a care home and hospice care.