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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY THE CONNÉTABLE OF ST. LAWRENCE
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 19th JANUARY 2016
Question
Further to the written response in relation to this issue given by the Minister on 2nd July 2013, can he advise what the current end of life care strategy is and explain how it is communicated to the public?
Answer
As part of P82/2012, Jersey Hospice Care (JHC) agreed in 2014 to be system leaders in End of Life Care (EoLC) across all care boundaries. JHC also extended its remit to islanders with any life-limiting illness and not just cancer and motor neurone disease.
A key strategic driver was to standardise EoLC across all care settings. As such, in 2015 a 3-year Gold Standards Framework (GSF) implementation plan was agreed by JHC, the Health ansd Social Services Department (HSSD) and Macmillan Jersey. The GSF programme was initially launched in the community in April 2015 and is being successfully implemented by a number of nursing/residential care homes, home care providers, GP surgeries, Family Nursing & Home Care (FNHC) and Hospice. The GSF programme is being positively adopted across primary care with the help of 3 GP champions and is already showing improvements in collaborative patient-centred care.
GSF is an education programme for all health and social care providers promoting the following:
- Earlier recognition of patients in the last year of life and more proactive care
- Initiating advance care planning discussions with patients and giving care in line with their preferences
- Decreased lengths of stay in hospital – meaning more patients are discharged to their preferred place of care towards the end of their life
- Enhanced communication with GPs and information transfer on admission and discharge, thereby improving coordination of cross-boundary care.
JHC has also implemented an education programme which is available to all healthcare workers across the island. This covers various topics across palliative care focuses on communication skills. Courses for Health Care Assistants and Registered Nurses have been fully subscribed; full details of all the courses are available on the JHC website www.jerseyhospicecare.com
The GSF Acute Hospital programme will be launched in March 2016. This will make Jersey the first ever jurisdiction to deliver the GSF programme across a whole health and social care economy. This cross- boundary approach to end of life care will ensure delivery of a seamless and sustained island-wide service placing patients in control of their end of life journey.
In terms of communicating with the public, the GSF launch received excellent press coverage in April 2015. At the end of last year, a press release was issued by Macmillan around the GP champions supporting JHC and HSSD with GSF and further coverage will be sought around the Hospital launch. There are regular updates on progress via radio, press releases and newsletters.
JHC also endeavours to inform islanders of initiatives by attending community meetings such as the WI. It also engages with employers in the corporate sector which arrange educational and information sessions for their staff. JHC raises awareness of its initiatives during Dying Matters week and Hospice Care week and there have been moves to involve and inform schoolchildren more. As such, JHC has attended a number of schools to give talks and answer any questions.
JHC has an End of Life steering group involving key stakeholders which meets to agree the way forward and to communicate the information back to their organisations. The stakeholders include representatives from the organisations involved in the delivery of EoLC, alongside representatives from HSSD's System Redesign and Delivery team.