Outstanding
–
Is the service responsive?
happened so that a person was enabled to have time to
consider their future care options whilst consideration had
also been given to people in the community who needed
hospice care. documentation would be recognised by all local agencies
so that people would not be always having the same
conversations about their end of life wishes unnecessarily
with different professionals.
We found that attention was paid to details, so as to really
care for people individually. One staff member told us, “It is
important to see each person as an individual and we try to
make things happen for people to meet not just their needs
but wishes as well.” One example we were given was one
person wanted to go home to say goodbye to their garden
and staff arranged this so that they were able to fulfil their
wish. There was also a very supportive and caring approach
to the wider family, as staff spoken with told us they
recognised that family support was extremely important for
people’s wellbeing. This included facilities available so that
family members and friends could stay overnight at the
hospice. We saw people could visit when they wished to
including children with toys available for them to play with.
Each individual room also had outside decked spaces with
table chairs and bird table for people and their visitors.
People we spoke with felt that these spaces were a lovely
idea. The registered manager told us and showed us there had
been developments within the services at the hospice to be
creative in responding to the diverse and changing needs
of the local community. This included working with other
agencies to focus upon the transition for young people into
adult hospice services and people with a wide range of
health conditions. For example, an initiative had been
developed to enable seriously ill people to be referred by
hospital consultants to have their treatment at the hospice
without having to go to hospital. There was specialist
equipment and staff were skilled to meet people’s different
health needs. People were able to have their treatment at
the hospice which included blood transfusions and scans
where in the past there would have needed to go to
hospital for these intervention procedures. We saw that the
hospice had been recognised for this initiative and
shortlisted for an international award. There was also
provision for people to be discharged rapidly from hospital
if they wished to die at the hospice.
The registered manager and staff spoke about their roles
with commitment and enthusiasm to providing the best
possible quality end of life care and support for people.
Staff told us about the training and creative initiatives, in
particular around improving dignity and compassion and
responding to people end of life care needs. The registered
manager and staff actively worked with other health and
social care providers and commissioners of people’s
services to promote on-going service development and
improvements for people’s care. For example, involvement
in a local joint project had helped influence local health
and social care providers to use the same approaches for
the discussion and recording of people’s end of life care
and wishes. We saw people who used the hospice service
had advanced care plans in place to determine people’s
care and treatment in the event of their sudden collapse
and for their end stage of life. Staff we spoke with told us
these plans were important as they protected people from
receiving end of life care which did not meet their needs or
wishes. The registered manager and staff had also done a
lot of work with other health colleagues to ensure
important information, such as, do not resuscitate
11
St Giles Hospice - Walsall Inspection report 21/12/2015
We saw people had made compliments about their
experiences of the services they received which were used
to provide the leadership, staff and the board with an
insight into how effective and responsive services were in
meeting people’s needs. One person commented, ‘The
quality of the care received allows us to look back with
contentment and satisfaction that everything was done
that could be done and that brings its own comfort and
peace of mind.’ Another person commented, ‘There are not
enough ways to say thank you for all your kind, caring
compassion and support to my wife. We will be forever
grateful and appreciate all that you did to make sure she
was able to go back home and be surrounded by her family
in her final days.’
A range of information was provided for people, their family
members and friends, which helped them to understand
the hospice and relevant external support services and
agencies. Accessible information was provided for people
about how to make suggestions or complaints about their
care. One person we spoke with us was positive about the
staff and the care they received however they did identify
an issue they had. We saw a member of the management
team went immediately to speak with this person to