Delegates flocked to the 13^th Strathcarron Hospice Conference ‘Palliative Care – Fit for The Future?’ this week in Edinburgh to hear the latest developments in the sector.

Eleven expert speakers took to the stage across two days of knowledge sharing and learning at the John McIntyre Conference Centre including:

• Professor Lucy Selman
• Dr Ami Nwosu
• Professor Max Watson
• Sharan Harris Christensen
• Professor Mark Pearson
• Dr Gillian Jackson
• Dr Jed Jerwood
• Dr Margaret Crighton
• Dr Sally Anne Francis
• Dr Mary Miller
• Shaun Maher

Insights were shared on a broad range of topics including, the opportunities and use of AI in palliative care, driving improvement in medication management systems, the ethical dilemmas of peaceful dying, communications skills training and much more.

Abstracts submitted by delegates were displayed across the two days with the Strathcarron Conference Poster Prize awarded to Denise Charity, from Strathcarron Hospice, entitled: “Comfort Through Care: Evaluating Oral Care Tools for People Approaching End-of-Life in Hospice and Community Settings”

The winning oral presentation was made by Dr Rachel Mallinson on ‘How to enable non-specialist doctors to provide better end of life care – a project to improve the quality of anticipatory medication prescribing’.

On behalf of the organising committee, Dr Lyndsay  Cardwell, Strathcarron Hospice Community Lead Nurse, said: “We would like to thank our speakers and delegates for making our 13^th Annual Conference a great success.

“There were lots of insights to be gained and a great opportunity to network and share knowledge. I’m sure everyone in attendance will be keen to take these important learnings back to their own healthcare settings to share with those they work with in palliative and end of life care.

“It was fantastic to hear that following attendance at last year’s conference, our oral presentation winner Rachel was inspired to conduct some research of her own. A great indicator that the ripple effect of learning continues on.”

We are busy planning next year’s conference, so watch for updates as we confirm dates and topics for next year!

To register for updates on our education and training please email [email protected]

Published 3 October 2025