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HRH Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia paid a surprise visit to Michael Sobell House on Friday October 19th. She is patron of Lifeline Humanitarian Organisation which provides aid to the people of Yugoslavia.
Michael Sobell House has for two years been providing post graduate training in palliative care for staff from the BEL hospice in Belgrade. Dr Humaira Jamal and senior nurse Margaret Gandon from the unit recently spent a week teaching palliative care to doctors and nurses in Serbia.
 Dr Elaine Laycock who worked for many years at Michael Sobell House is Medical Adviser to Lifeline Humanitarian Organisation which provides aid to Serbia and of which Princess Katherine is Patron. Princess Katherine has thus chosen to visit Michael Sobell House to learn more about the work there.
There is only the one hospice in the whole of Serbia as yet, the BELhospice, and at the moment that has no in-patient care. Sadly many medical staff and lay people are still confused as to how true hospice care differs from geriatrics, which is a situation we were in England twenty years ago.
Princess Katherine has heard about the excellent care given at Michael Sobell House and came to see for herself how palliative care works and also to experience the real hospice atmosphere, so that she can support the hospice movement in her country even more actively.
She was welcomed by Dr Ivan Trotman, The Chairman of Trustee’s of The Friends of Michael Sobell House Rod Lacey, Margaret Gandon and Dr Elaine Laycock, and spent time talking to both staff and patients having day care. She expressed her admiration for the unit, and the hope that as soon as possible the BELhospice in Belgrade will be expanded to include an in-patient unit, and that the hospice movement will spread from there, once people can see the vital importance of palliative care.
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