Through our Widening Access project and a new grants programme, we have supported hospices in their efforts to widen access to care for all who need it.
New widening access grants programme
We launched a major new grants partnership with the Burdett Trust for Nursing worth almost £1 million. The three-year programme will support nurse-led projects aiming to make hospice care and services more accessible to all sectors of the community. This year we funded nine projects, including three that are developing models of care for people with dementia, and one that is researching the end of life care training needs of nursing home staff.
Widening Access project
As part of our Widening Access project, we continued to offer advice and support to hospices on a range of issues related to access, legislation and practice. We also joined forces with St Luke’s Hospice in Cheshire and Liverpool University to run a national conference on dying well with dementia.
This year we increased our support for hospices on improving quality and standards. We did this through our National Audit Tools Group, Food and Nutrition Group and programme of support on Care Quality Commission registration and regulation.
Audit tools
Our audit tools support patient care by helping hospices to improve the quality of their services and meet national standards. This year our National Audit Tools Group developed four new tools, taking the total to 21, and held a clinical audit workshop for hospice staff. It also gave a presentation of its work at a major international conference on quality in healthcare.
Food and nutrition
Our Food and Nutrition Group helped to improve the standards of nutritional aspects of care and increased awareness of the importance of food and nutrition in palliative care. In particular, it provided training for palliative care professionals, engaged patients to find out their views and needs regarding nutrition, and produced an insightful film about a patient’s experience of food and nutrition after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
And in a major step forward for nutritional care, the group produced a professional consensus statement of nutritional care in palliative care patients, which has been endorsed by the British Dietetic Association and the Royal College of Physicians.
Regulation
We responded to our members needs around regulation by developing a programme of support to prepare hospices for registering with the new Care Quality Commission. This included helping hospices to comply with the essential standards of quality and safety set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Through our international programme of work, we helped to improve access to care in several countries around the world.
Supporting care in Africa
We secured funding from the Department for International Development for a new African Palliative Care Association led project that will give patients in six African countries better access to drugs to treat their pain. By supporting local training programmes, the project will help to increase the number of health staff who can administer opioids for pain management.
Meanwhile, the project we are supporting to expand healthcare in Sierra Leone enabled the country’s Shepherd’s Hospice to care for 3,000 patients in their own homes. It also mentored health staff and volunteers who refer people for TB and HIV testing, with almost 5,000 people with TB being referred for a HIV test since the project began in 2008.
Financial support for Indian project
We awarded £5,000 to Project Kieran, a joint initiative with Help the Aged, HelpAge India and the Indian Association of Palliative Care that helps to improve access to palliative care for older people in India.
As a member of the Transition Partnership, we strive to improve services for young people who move from children’s to adults’ palliative care services. We helped to secure £400,000 for the partnership from the Big Lottery fund for a research project that will help shape the future care of thousands of young people as they become adults.
