Palliative Care
Saint Mary's Hospital
Palliative Care at Saint Mary's Hospital
Palliative Care at Saint Mary's Hospital provides observers and fellows with exposure to compassionate, multidisciplinary care for babies, women and families where life-limiting illness, complex decision-making, bereavement, or end-of-life support may be part of the clinical pathway.
The programme is based within Saint Mary's Hospital, part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Saint Mary's services are delivered across several sites, including Oxford Road Campus, North Manchester General Hospital, Salford, Trafford General Hospital and Wythenshawe Hospital. The hospital provides services for local patients and for people referred with complex medical conditions from Greater Manchester, the North West and beyond.
Observers and fellows will gain insight into how palliative principles are applied in neonatal and maternity settings, including holistic assessment, communication with families, symptom-focused care planning, ethical practice, bereavement support, and coordination across clinical, psychological, spiritual and community services.
Learning is expected to include supervised attendance at relevant clinical activities, multidisciplinary discussions, consultant-led teaching, reflective learning, and observation of how care is individualised to the needs, values and circumstances of each family.
Fellowships and observerships at Manchester Specialist Health Academy provide international clinicians with structured opportunities to experience high quality healthcare training within a leading NHS environment. Both pathways offer consultant oversight, a clear induction, and access to modern clinical settings that support a strong understanding of advanced patient care. Participants are welcomed into a professional community that encourages learning, collaboration, and engagement with the culture of Manchester.
While fellows take part in more in depth clinical development, gaining exposure to subspecialties, procedures and research, observers focus on shadowing and understanding multidisciplinary practice within NHS services. Both groups benefit from involvement in clinics, team discussions, and wider learning activities such as simulation sessions, CPD opportunities, and quality improvement insight.
Academic contributions and awards
Academic activity includes work on early specialist palliative care, symptom burden, end-of-life care, anticipatory prescribing, pleural disease guidance and professional education. Publications linked to Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust include:
- British Thoracic Society guideline for pleural disease. Thorax, 2023.
- Symptom burden and unmet needs in malignant pleural mesothelioma: exploratory analyses from the RESPECT-Meso study. Journal of Palliative Care, 2021.
- Anticipatory prescribing in community end-of-life care in the UK and Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic: online survey. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, 2020.
- Early specialist palliative care on quality of life for malignant pleural mesothelioma: a randomised controlled trial. Thorax, 2019.
Rare and complex cases
- Complex neonatal conditions where prognosis is uncertain or care planning includes comfort-focused goals.
- Perinatal loss, neonatal death, and bereavement support within a specialist women and newborn hospital setting.
- Ethically complex discussions involving escalation, limitation, or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.
- Palliative care needs arising alongside fetal medicine, neonatal intensive care, maternity medicine, infection prevention, safeguarding, and psychosocial support pathways.
- Situations requiring sensitive coordination between hospital teams, community services, hospice providers, chaplaincy and spiritual care.
Why Manchester?
Manchester is a city of innovation and progress, renowned as the world’s first industrial city and still leading in science, healthcare, and technology. With excellent transport links and a vibrant, multicultural atmosphere, it offers an inclusive environment for learning and professional growth.
Beyond your placement, Manchester offers something for everyone - from watching the iconic Manchester derby to exploring world-class museums and galleries. With vibrant music, sport, and culture, the city truly has it all. Combining heritage and modernity, it creates a unique setting for personal enrichment and memorable experiences whilst you develop professionally.
Our signature programmes
Observership
Palliative Care
Objectives
By the end of the placement, the visiting professional should be able to:
- Describe how palliative and bereavement care is integrated within neonatal and maternity pathways at a specialist women and newborn hospital.
- Recognise the role of multidisciplinary assessment in identifying physical, emotional, psychosocial and cultural care needs.
- Observe effective communication approaches used with families during uncertain, sensitive or end-of-life situations.
- Explain how care planning is coordinated across hospital teams and relevant external support services.
- Reflect on professional wellbeing, boundaries and resilience when working in emotionally complex clinical contexts.
Eligibility
- The visiting professional must have sufficient English language skills to engage meaningfully in the observership.
Fellowship
Palliative Care
Objectives
By the end of the placement, the visiting professional should be able to:
- Apply specialist palliative care principles to clinical reasoning, supervised assessment and care planning within neonatal and maternity settings.
- Contribute to MDT discussions under supervision, including consideration of symptom control, escalation planning, ethical issues and family priorities.
- Demonstrate safe, compassionate communication with families and colleagues in complex palliative and bereavement care scenarios.
- Develop an understanding of governance, documentation, referral pathways and continuity of care for patients and families with specialist palliative needs.
- Identify opportunities for service improvement, education, audit or quality improvement relevant to palliative and bereavement care.
Eligibility
- Postgraduate Qualification: Applicants must hold an overseas-recognised postgraduate medical qualification (MD, MS, Masters) in ophthalmology or a relevant specialty.
- Experience: Minimum of 3 years’ recent experience in ophthalmology or a related specialty within the last 5 years, including at least 12 months of continuous practice before applying.
- Training Level: Equivalent to ST5 or above, or post-CCT clinicians seeking subspecialty exposure.
- Language Proficiency: IELTS Academic with 7.0 in each band and overall 7.5, or OET Medicine with Grade B in all domains, with certificate validity within 24 months.
- Registration: GMC registration is required for fellowship activity. Sponsorship support may be available through approved routes where appropriate.
- Applicants must not have failed PLAB exams previously.
- Visa sponsorship is only available through approved routes; self-funded visas outside agreed schemes are excluded.