Contacts
Contact:
Patricia Hirst
Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist
Organisation:
Palliative Care (Care Homes)
United Kingdom
Tel:
01977 708868 Ext 257
Email:
Case study:
17 August 2007
Provision of supportive and palliative care to service users in Wakefield care homes
Key points
- Service developed following a major consultation exercise
- Wakefield care homes are receiving support and advice from specialist palliative care teams
- The scheme has led to earlier discharge from secondary care and fewer hospital admissions at the end of life
- Referrals to the service have increased massively as have requests for education
- The service has helped care home staff in many ways, including introductory training, a services directory and a loan scheme for syringe drivers
Specialist palliative care teams in Wakefield are providing support and advice to all care home staff in the area in order to prevent inappropriate hospital admission in the last days of residents’ lives.
The scheme, initially funded by Macmillan Cancer Support but now taken on by Wakefield District PCT, has enabled patients to be discharged earlier from secondary care and led to fewer hospital admissions at the end of life.
Before the service was launched a major consultation exercise took place with all care homes and specialist palliative care teams using face to face semi structured interviews.
The specialist teams then visited every care home to find out care home managers’ knowledge about the services available locally, their use of specialist palliative care and equipment and the education needs of all team members.
As the service has developed there has been a massive increase in referrals and requests for education.
Specialist palliative care provision to patients with non-malignant disease (particularly those with cognitive impairment) has also increased.
The service has developed an ‘Introduction to Palliative Care’ training for all newly appointed staff in care homes.
It also produced a directory of services for all care homes and set up palliative care link nurses (care homes) meetings four times a year as well as loaning out syringe driver equipment.
The aim now is to roll out the GSF and End of Life pathways in more care homes and coordinate all services that visit care homes more effectively.
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