End of life care shortlisted for national award
The Trust has been shortlisted in the HSJ Patient Safety Awards for the End of Life Together programme, a joined-up service delivered by an alliance of local hospices, primary care, community care and acute services across Mid-Nottinghamshire.
End of Life Together is a fully coordinated high quality end of life care service delivered by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust, Beaumond House Community Hospice, Nottinghamshire Hospice, Primary Integrated Community Services and Cruse Bereavement.
Good end of life care is where patients are involved in decisions about their care and the Alliance across Mid-Nottinghamshire, from the GP, district nurse, staff in acute services and local hospices provide the opportunity for patients to be involved in their future care needs.
The service provides a single telephone number for patients, carers and clinicians to answer questions about palliative care and provides access to services that support the person to remain at home in their preferred place of care for as long as possible.
These decisions are recorded and shared, which helps the doctors and nurses involved in the patient’s care to make decisions based on the wishes of the patient and support the patient’s family.
Access to palliative care services is also provided that enhance the care the patient receives at home, e.g. hospice night care at home, respite day care and clinical nurse specialist assessments. Nottinghamshire Healthcare with John Eastwood Hospice Trust run the local hospice services, including palliative care beds that support the most poorly patients, as well as specialist doctors and nurses who help our patients in the community and offer support in hospital as well. Nottinghamshire Healthcare, as part of an Alliance service with its partners, also provides education and training to all clinicians in Mid-Nottinghamshire to support the delivery of best practice palliative care.
Carl Ellis, Head of Service for End of Life Together of the Alliance said: “We’re extremely delighted that our work has been acknowledged and shortlisted for this award. Our belief is that working together as an Alliance, rather than as separate organisations we can achieve so much more. The Alliance helps us to meet our goal to support all patients in Mid-Nottinghamshire who needs end of life care, regardless if they are in their own home, a hospice, a care home or in hospital. We are extremely proud of our collaboration and we feel we have the foundations to build on our success and develop end of life care in the future.”
Lisa Dinsdale, the Trust’s Interim Associate Director of Community Health Services said: “The End of Life Together Programme is a brilliant example of how system partners have worked together to redesign their services to ensure that we collectively wrap our services around our patients and ensuring that they are cared for as per their wishes and in their preferred place of care.”
The End of Life Together Programme is shortlisted in the End of Life Care category which recognises those who have implemented initiatives to ensure consistently safe and high-quality palliative care.
Winners will be announced virtually as part of the Patient Safety Virtual Congress and Awards in November 2020.
A full list of the 2020 HSJ Patient Safety Awards finalists can be found here – https://awards.patientsafetycongress.co.uk/shortlist
