WORCESTERSHIRE Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (WAHT) has been named as one of just ten hospital trusts to take part in a programme to support improvements in end of life care.
The ‘Building on the best’ scheme will aim to develop new areas of focus for improving end of life care, including making information more accessible to patients and their families, enabling more shared decision making and improving pain and symptom management.
The project will run for two and a half years after which there will be a thorough evaluation and lessons learned will be used to contribute to improvement on care across the country.
The programme is funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and is supported by a partnership between the charity, National Council for Palliative Care, NHS England and the NHS Trust Development Authority.
Teresa Makinson, end of life care facilitator at WAHT said: “Building on the Best will allow care throughout the hospital to be more responsive to the needs of patients and their families.
“The palliative care people receive at our Trust is highly regarded and we have been at the forefront of developments in this field in recent years.
“Membership to this programme will allow us to share the best practice throughout the wider NHS to ensure as many people as possible benefit from compassionate and responsive end of life care.
“We only have one chance to get it right, so by participating in Building on the Best we can ensure this is what we’re able to do for every patient who is in their last weeks and months of life.”
Staff representing the project teams at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust will meet with the other nine trusts for a two day meeting later this month.
