A new strategy aiming to ensure the best possible care is provided to people nearing the end of their life has been launched by health professionals on the Isle of Wight.
The IW End of Life Care Strategy 2015-2020 has been produced by a host of organisations including the Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Isle of Wight NHS Trust, Earl Mountbatten Hospice (EMH), Isle of Wight Council (IWC) and the My Life a Full Life (MLAFL) programme.
The aim of the strategy is to help those with advanced, progressive and incurable illness to live as well as possible until they die, regardless of their diagnosis. It also seeks to ensure individuals and their carers are supported through the prevention and relief of suffering by early identification and assessment, effective treatment of pain and other symptoms, and also the provision of psychological, spiritual, social and practical support. It has been drafted following an extensive consultation undertaken last year.
The document was launched recently at the Earl Mountbatten Hospice. Both Eve Richardson, OBE, Chair of the IOW NHS Trust and Dr David Issac, GP lead on End of Life Care were among those present.
Dr Issac, Lead GP for Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said:
“Ensuring people have a good end of life experience is just as important as ensuring the services we provide at other stages of life are good. Dying is inevitable but suffering is not. I hope that the plans outlined in this strategy will help to ensure more of us are able to die peacefully in places of our choice.
“Many improvements have been made in end of life care since the introduction of local and national strategies in recent years. For example in 2013/14 nearly half of people (48 per cent) met their end of life in their usual place of residence. This figure is on the increase and is above the national average. But there is still work to be done if we are to improve care even further and this strategy sets the framework through which this improvement will be delivered.”
Eve said:
“The Trust fully supports the implementation of this strategy and we are all agreed that we need to make it real, it must be used, and not just sit on a shelf. It will further strengthen links with all our partners to help us to improve the quality of end of life care for all on the Island. We will all need good end of life care whatever our condition and we all need to make plans and make our wishes known. Most people do not want to die in hospital. They want to be in their home or care home or hospice with their family and friends by their side.”
To ensure the strategy is effective, an End of Life Care Strategic Group, comprising representatives from the key partner organisations, has been established to implement its recommendations. Progress will be formally monitored by the IOW CCG, the IW NHS Trust and EMH. The CCG has already included some of the recommendations in their delivery plan for 2016/17.
Nicola Longson, My Life a Full Life programme director said:
“The strategy supports a key aim of My Life a Full Life in that it seeks to ensure all relevant organisations are working closely and effectively together to provide personalised care to those who need it.”
Crucial in developing the strategy has been reviewing local care against the five priority areas set out by the national Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People (LACDP) body. The strategy addresses how each priority will be delivered.
Other recommendations in the strategy include:
• Developing holistic and co-ordinated Island-wide end of life care offering a ‘menu of choice’ – a personalised journey within one integrated package of care across the whole health and social care system.
• Increasing public awareness around end of life, giving good access to information to allow informed planning.
• Training, supporting and empowering staff to give them the confidence and tools to communicate clearly and sensitively with patients and involve them in any decisions about their care
• Implementing the necessary systems to enable rapid, 24/7 access to end of life care with the right resources in the right place, allowing those at the end of their life to die in their place of choice and to ensure that they and their carers/families are fully supported in that choice.
• Developing one personalised care plan, agreed with the person and their carers/families, and a shared, person-held record: regularly reviewed, easily updated, easily accessed and visible to all who need to see it.
• Assigning a dedicated keyworker to each person, to coordinate and review fast track care across all services.
Nigel Hartley, Earl Mountbatten Hospice chief executive added:
“As the lead provider of palliative care on the Isle of Wight, we are absolutely committed to working in partnership with other organisations to ensure we get things right for patients and their families.
“Providing the highest quality end of life care for those who need us now, and for our future generations, is what we are all aspiring to. This is achievable by working together, and by keeping the needs of patients and families at the heart of all we do.”
You can view the IW End of Life Care Strategy 2015-2020 via the following link End of Life Care Strategy 2015-2020.
