Rowcroft Hospice

Updated 21 December 2021

Rowcroft Hospice is operated by Rowcroft House Foundation Limited. It offers community and inpatient hospice care for people affected by life-limiting illness and serves the communities of Torquay and South Devon.

The Rowcroft inpatient unit is a 12-bed facility which provides respite care, symptom control and care for patients at the end of life. The hospice delivers end of life care in patients’ homes and this service works closely with the hospice inpatient unit to support the care needs of patients. There is a team of clinical specialist nurses, healthcare assistants, therapy services, and bereavement services. There is a team of consultants and specialty doctors who support the inpatient unit and home visiting services. Hospice staff work closely with clinical nurse specialists and medical staff at the local acute trust. This close working relationships enables collaborative working across the acute and community services, providing a more seamless service to patients and their families. The clinical nurse specialist team also provides specialist end of life care to local nursing and care homes. The Rowcroft educational team ran events and courses for health and social care professionals to enhance their palliative care knowledge and skills.

The service is registered with the CQC to provide:

• Personal care
• Treatment of disease, disorder and injury

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach. We previously inspected Rowcroft Hospice in 2016 using our adult social care framework. This was the first inspection of the hospice using our healthcare framework.

Updated 21 December 2021

Our rating of this service went down. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service-controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• Staff provided effective care and treatment, gave patients enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. They monitored patient’s outcomes, evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to ensure patients achieved their goals. Key services were available seven days a week.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.
• Leaders were active in the local community and health economy, representing the hospice and influencing improvements to meet the needs of local people. The service planned care to meet people’s needs, took account of patients’ individual requirements, and made it easy for people to give feedback. Staff responded promptly in changing the way services were delivered during the pandemic to better meet the needs of patients. People could access the service when they needed it.
• Leaders had a shared purpose to provide outstanding care. They ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to enhance their skills and improve the care they delivered. Leaders developed systems which supported innovation, they were focused on improving care across the local health economy. Services were developed to meet the needs of patients. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services.

However:

• Not all staff eligible to complete safeguarding level three training had done so.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, caring and responsive, with good leadership.

Updated 21 December 2021

Our rating of this service went down. We rated it as good because:

See overall summary for more information