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The first dedicated hospice in Hong Kong Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms. These symptoms can be physical, emotional, spiritual or social in nature. The concept of hospice as a place to treat the incurably ill has been evolving since the 11th century. The modern hospice began to emerge in the 17th century, but many of the foundational principles by which modern hospices operate were pioneered in the 1950s by Dame Cicely Saunders. Although the movement has met with some resistance, hospice has rapidly expanded through the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere.

The early development of hospice

Linguistically, the word "hospice" is derived from the Latin hospes, a word which served double-duty in referring both to guests and hosts. The first hospices are believed to have originated in the 11th century, around 1065, when for the first time the incurably ill were permitted into places dedicated to treatment by Crusaders. In the early 14th century, the order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem opened the first hospice in Rhodes, meant to provide refuge for travelers and care for the ill and dying.Connor, 5. Hospices flourished in the Middle Ages, but languished as religious orders were dispersed. They were revived in the 17th century in France by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. France continued to see development in the hospice field; the hospice of L'Association des Dames du Calvaire, founded by Jeanne Garnier, opened in 1843. Six other hospices followed before 1900.

Meanwhile, hospices were established as well in other areas. In the United Kingdom, attention was drawn to the needs of the terminally ill in the middle of the 19th century, with Lancet and the British Medical Journal publishing articles pointing to the need of the impoverished terminally ill for good care and sanitary conditions.Lewis, 21. Steps were taken to remedy inadequate facilities with the opening of the Friedenheim in London, which by 1892 offered 35 beds to patients dying of tuberculosis. Four more hospices were established in London by 1905. Australia, too, was seeing active hospice development, with notable hospices including the Home for Incurables in Adelaide (1879), the Home of Peace (1902) and the Anglican House of Peace for the Dying in Sydney (1907). In 1899, New York City saw the opening of St. Rose's Hospice by the Servants for Relief of Incurable Cancer, who soon expanded with six locations in other cities.

Among the more influential early developers of Hospice were the Irish Sisters of Charity, who opened a hospice in Harold's Cross, Ireland in 1879. It proved to be very busy, with as many as 20,000 people—primarily suffering tuberculosis and cancer—coming to the hospice to die between 1845 and 1945. The Sisters of Charity expanded internationally, opening the Sacred Heart Hospice for the Dying in Sydney in 1890, with hospices in Melbourne and New South Wales following in the 1930s. In 1905, they opened St. Joseph's Hospice in London. It was there in the 1950s that Cicely Saunders developed many of the foundational principles of modern hospice care.