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Hospice Palliative Care Service

Our Hospice Palliative Care Service provides compassionate, specialist support for people with life-limiting illness and their whānau. We focus on comfort, dignity, and quality of life - offering physical, emotional, spiritual and social care when it matters most.


Hospice Palliative Care

Palliative care helps adults and children with a life-limiting illness live their life as fully and comfortably as possible. Palliative care identifies and treats symptoms which may be physical (taha tinana), emotional (taha hinengaro) , spiritual (taha wairua), or social (taha whānau). Family/whānau and friends can also receive practical and emotional support.

Hospice Info Read Guides →
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Care & support when you need it most

Nurse Maude provides a range of specialist hospice palliative care services for those living in Canterbury. All services are free to patients and their families/whanau.


Referrals for specialist palliative care can be made by any health professional. Most patients have their palliative care needs met by primary providers such as district nursing teams and GPs. The Hospice Palliative Care team are specialist providers and are skilled at monitoring and supporting patients at home, in aged care facilities, or in the hospice inpatient unit, who may have more complex or challenging symptoms causing concern. The team always works alongside the district nurses, GPs, and other health professionals to provide the best possible care.



Patients and their families/whānau may self-refer for counselling.

Help us improve our service

If you would like to provide feedback on any aspect of the Hospice Palliative Care Service, please complete the short survey below. Your feedback is important to us and helps us to continually improve the service we provide to our patients and whānau. Thank you.

Feedback Survey
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Our position on the End of Life Choice Act 2019

We will follow our responsibility in accordance with the End of Life Choice Act 2019 if a patient wishes to explore assisted dying. We respect all views, and we will continue to provide the best care possible to patients and their whānau. However, our staff will not assess patients for eligibility, nor be present during the administration of any medication used in assisted dying, wherever that may take place. Assisted dying will not occur on hospice premises. We will continue to provide care and support up to the point of assisted death, and during bereavement.

Latest news

Nurse Maude and UC strengthen community healthcare press release with graduation cap on blue background
21 September 2026
Nurse Maude and the University of Canterbury are partnering to connect research and community healthcare, improving care for patients, whānau and communities.
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18 September 2026
We want your feedback
Dying Matters Week podcast series graphic with white leaf and face silhouette on blue gradient background
9 September 2026
For dying matters, we've released the seven days, seven conversations podcast series. A podcast about helping people talk more openly about death, dying and palliative care.
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