Clinical | Department of Medicine | School of Medicine

How to Contact Us

The Queen's Specialist Palliative Care team has a consultant physician available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer questions or provide advice to physicians or nurse practitioners regarding symptom management or palliative patient supports.

Office Hours (M-F 0800-1600)

Centralized Referral number: Phone 613-548-2485, Fax 613-548-2361

After Hours (For Physicians and Nurse Practitioners looking for advice)

Call KHSC Switchboard: Phone 613-548-3232 and ask for the palliative attending physician on call.

How to Refer to Us

Palliative Care Consult Team Referral Form 2024

Outpatient Referrals

Please fax referral to the Division of Palliative Medicine centralized fax number listed above.

Urgent referrals (1-3 days) you must also CALL our centralized referral number at 613- 548-2485 to discuss with a team member.

You will be notified by fax within 14 days whether your referral has been accepted, declined, or if additional information is needed to process the referral request.

Referrals for admission to our Palliative Care Unit are to be faxed to the centralized fax number, as these will be triaged by our Community Team.

E-Consults

For non-urgent palliative care advice or questions, Queen’s Specialist Palliative Care physicians also participate in the Ontario eConsult Program. eConsult is a free, secure, online tool that allows physicians and nurse practitioners to send patient-specific clinical questions to a palliative care specialist and receive advice for management in seven days or less. It often eliminates the need for a face-to-face visit with a specialist. To access our eConsult service, please refer to the information provided online at: https://otnhub.ca/

Inpatient Referrals

For KHSC inpatients, call the switchboard at our KGH site to have our Palliative Care Consult team paged.

For PCH inpatients, enter the referral into ePR and one of our consultants will call you back to discuss the request for consultation.

When to Refer to Us

If your patient is experiencing complex symptoms (e.g., pain, delirium, nausea, dyspnea, or complex psychosocial, emotional or spiritual distress) related to their life-threatening illness at any point in their illness trajectory, from diagnosis through to recovery or end-of-life.

If you would like advice on symptom management, advance care planning or practical tips on how to access palliative care services for your patient and their family.

If you need support around advance care planning, goals of care discussions, and decision making about withholding or withdrawing medical treatments.

Program Components

Palliative Care Community Consult Team

The community team provides support for symptom management and care planning to assist family physicians and primary care teams in providing a palliative approach to care. Support can be in one-time consultation or ongoing shared care for patients with complex palliative care needs and our team will follow a patient as needed until symptoms are optimized or until end-of-life, if challenging symptoms persist, including 24/7 on-call support for those patients we are following.

Palliative Oncology Clinic at CCSEO & Belleville General Hospital

This program is for patients who are having complex problems with pain or other symptoms from cancer. Patients are seen at any stage in the cancer trajectory, including those with curative disease. The palliative care team provides palliative care consultation in partnership with patients’ existing oncology and/or primary care teams and follow as required for symptom management.

Palliative Care Unit (PCU) at Providence Care Hospital (PCH)

The PCU provides compassionate and comprehensive hospice palliative care to patients with a life expectancy of less than 3 months who need specialized palliative care supports in an inpatient setting. Patients’ goals will include care focused on comfort and symptom relief, rather than curative treatment or resuscitation efforts. A holistic, team approach is provided including skilled medical, nursing, spiritual care, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy for comfort, as appropriate. Admission to the 10 inpatient beds at PCU is managed by our palliative care teams and can be accessed by consulting our inpatient or outpatient (community) teams based on the patient’s location regarding admission to PCU or alternative management options.

KHSC Palliative Care Consult Team

This service provides consultative support to patients admitted to KHSC, their families, and healthcare teams to assist with complex palliative symptoms and issues related to a patient’s life-threatening illness. The team will follow an inpatient consultation as needed until symptoms are optimized or the patient leaves KHSC. Follow-up with one of our outpatient specialist palliative care programs may be recommended following discharge.

The majority of patients at KHSC will be admitted under other teams as the Most Responsible Providers, however some patients with palliative symptom issues as the primary reason for hospitalization may be transferred within KHSC or from outside hospitals or admitted directly under the palliative medicine team for management.

Multidisciplinary Specialist Clinics

Our palliative consultant physicians participate in a variety of multidisciplinary specialist clinics for patients with complex palliative care needs, including neuromuscular disorders and breathlessness from newly diagnosed lung cancer or end-stage non-malignant lung disease. Patients may be referred by their attending specialist physician at that clinic to see the palliative physician in consultation.