St Richard's Hospice

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

The responsive key question was rated as outstanding. One quality statement, care provision, integration and continuity, was included in this assessment. The service demonstrated a strong emphasis on identifying and designing provision of care for all. They worked closely with system colleagues to ensure timely access to care and treatment and allocated resources to tackle inequalities and achieve equity of access

This service scored 100 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Person-centred Care during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual people in a way that ensured flexibility, choice and continuity of care. We saw examples of individual therapy sessions for patients with dementia or their loved ones. Specialist groups for people living with Parkinson's disease and multidisciplinary therapists supporting patients in the living well therapy centre of the service. People that we spoke with were consistently positive about the care and treatment them and their loved ones received. A large proportion of volunteers at the service had lived experience of the service when their loved ones had been cared for by the hospice. People we spoke with during the inspection told us how valuable the family support practitioners, specialist palliative care social workers and specialist palliative care cognitive behavioural therapists had been in supporting them through their journey even after their loved one had died. Dedicated community teams supported patients and families in their home over sometimes lengthy periods of time to ensure continuity of care and treatment. During the inspection we saw an example of this, with a patient who had been cared for by the service for 2 years. Family told us how this involvement had been instrumental in their loved one coming to terms with their condition and receiving the most appropriate and individualised care for them. We also saw how the service collaborated across the healthcare network to provide timely access to medication, equipment and support to the patient and their loved ones. One family member explained how the service had helped them come to terms with loss of control during the disease process and discussed strategies to help both the patient and their loved ones to cope with the challenges they faced.

The service took a proactive approach in understanding the needs and preferences of different groups of people and delivered care in a way that met those needs. The service had bespoke menus and multifaith sacred spaces. Staff that we spoke with gave examples of how peoples individual needs and preferences were central to the delivery of tailored services particularly for people with multiple and complex needs. We saw examples of communication tools used to support people living with neurodiversity and specific staff training in how to support autistic people or people with learning disability with their grief and bereavement. Consideration to factors such as neglected emotional needs and an increased likelihood of the experience of trauma had been factored into teaching as had case study style reflection of people who had used the service. Staff told us how they would ensure that patients glasses were clean so that they could see properly, use various communication approaches such as whiteboards and pens, widget symbols (a symbol based language) and picture boards to aid communication with patients and relatives. A large proportion of volunteers at the service had lived experience of the service when their loved ones had been cared for by the hospice. They had returned as volunteers due to how well their loved ones were cared for.

Care provision was all inclusive and complexity of care was a key consideration of the service. The service demonstrated this by providing a metastatic breast care service, intravenous therapy, tracheostomy care and feeding support to patients within the wider community as well as training and education to support local primary care colleagues. Work undertaken with the integrated care board and local health economy considered the care needs of the local demographic. A rise in people living with mental health conditions, dementia and frailty had been identified. In response the service was reviewing its needs as part of its strategy development and plans to implement professional health telephone lines, clinical outreach, and learning and education for the upskilling of key professionals such as GP's and paramedics were underway.

The service worked hard to truly understand and reflect the diverse health and care needs of people and local communities. This included working with the homeless population at specialist day centres. The service had recognised that people with reading and writing challenges were less able and likely to communicate wishes and needs therefore a forum art group had been set up to support advanced care planning. Feedback from people who had used the service indicated that they sometimes felt that facilities could be intimidating and so a reach out initiative had been introduced. An Equity, Diversity and Inclusion forum was in place. Members of this forum linked with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, or asexual (LGBTQIA+) groups in the community to ensure the voice of the community is heard. Lunch and learn sessions helped overcome cultural and social barriers of older generations of LGBTQIA+ people. A protected characteristics audit was in progress at the time of the inspection and mortality reviews undertaken by the service considered spiritual care. Makaton and easy read documents supported people with autism and learning disabilities. The service had recruited a psychological care facilitator within the hospice at home and community palliative care services. A strategic needs analysis included a population analysis as well as review of current provision. And Gypsy Roma Traveller and transgender cultural awareness training had been rolled out to all staff having recognised these as people who experience barriers to accessing services.

We did not look at Providing Information during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Listening to and involving people during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Equity in access during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Equity in experiences and outcomes during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Planning for the future during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.