Case study:

02 August 2007

Provision of supportive and palliative care to service users in Wakefield care homes

Key points

A specialist palliative care service for residents in Wakefield district care homes has led to earlier discharges from secondary care and fewer inappropriate hospital admissions at the end of life.

It has also resulted in an increase in specialist palliative care for patients with non-malignant disease (particularly those with cognitive impairment).

There has been a big rise in referrals as the service has developed as well as growing requests from care home staff for education.

Launched six years ago the service was initially funded by Macmillan Cancer Support but is now paid for by Wakefield District PCT.

Before it was launched the project manager consulted with all care homes and specialist palliative care teams to ensure the service would meet the needs of both users and staff.

As well as providing expert care to residents, the service offers education packages and development of specific assessment tools such as the pain assessment tool for cognitively impaired service users.

There are now plans to roll out the Gold Standards Framework/End of Life Pathway in more care homes.

It is also hoped to coordinate more effectively all services that visit care homes within the PCT.