Our future direction for care, meeting the needs of our community

In 2021, we launched a review into our care services. The review included a survey and focus groups with a number of our stakeholders. The feedback we received has helped us to assess our provision of care and has highlighted where we need to adapt to best meet the needs of our community.

A specialist approach

As a charity it is important that we make the most efficient use of our resources to provide the greatest benefit to our patients and their families. Most participants in the review felt that we should focus our resources on delivering support that no other organisations can. Respondents felt that we are best placed to provide specialist palliative and end of life care and that we should focus on this. Participants also emphasised a desire for us to avoid duplicating services that might be accessed via other health and social care providers. These views are central to our new Care Strategy which you can find out more about below.

With this new approach we intend to continue to respond to the specialist care needs of our community and to help more patients from diagnosis until the end of their life.

As a charity, we will continue to

• Provide free, high quality, responsive specialist palliative care and end of life care to people in mid-Staffordshire
• Provide services based on peoples’ needs and our capacity to meet these needs
• Focus on excellence, quality of care, and quality of life, especially dignity
• Offer support in our hospice, at home, and in other community settings including nursing homes
• Recognise that our staff and volunteers remain our greatest resource

Our specialist services will continue to be delivered by our community specialist nurses, inpatient care, specialist therapy services and in-reach provision to other providers such as County Hospital, Nursing Homes, and prisons. These clinical specialist services will be supported by the Hospice at Home team as specialists in end of life care, to provide responsive services to meet needs identified by the specialist teams. We also will improve access to these services.

We aim to

• Provide flexible and rapid access to specialist palliative and end of life care
• Seek to develop new opportunities for collaboration and integration
• Support improved forward planning for patients at the end of life
• Target support for patients who deteriorate rapidly
• Meet the supportive needs of patients and families
• Educate and Train.

What will change

There will be a shift in approach in some areas, day therapies in its pre-pandemic format will not return however we will:

• Prioritise the provision of specialist palliative and end of life care.
• Establish specialist out-patient clinics.
• Continue our Wellbeing Programme.
• Provide guidance, education, awareness, signposting and the development of community networks.
• Improve accessibility to our services.
• Support patients and families as needed at any stage from diagnosis onwards.
• Develop new roles for volunteers across services.
• Prioritise partnership and collaborative working, for example providing specialist support to GP’s and working with other community teams.