Best Practice in Nursing Newspaper Issue 1 | Page 20

REVIEW: HOW PARTNERSHIPS CAN TRANSFORM
END OF LIFE EXPERIENCE AND CARE
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As part of the Commissioning Show
Conference, Judi Thorley, Executive
Nurse, NHS South Cheshire CCG and
Chair of the NHCSS Nurses Forum gave
a talk on transforming end of life care.
We look at some of the highlights of the
talk, delivered alongside Salli Jeynes, Chief
Executive, the End of Life Partnership
and Dr Sinead Clarke, Macmillan Cancer
and End of Life Partnership Clinical Lead,
South Cheshire CCG.
The talk on ‘How partnerships can transform
end of life experience and care’ began with
some key end of life statistics from the NHS
Ombudsman Report, 2015. These include:
approximately 500,000 people die each year
in the UK; 1% of the English population dies
each year and 25% of these are sudden
or unexpected deaths; around 25% of all
hospital beds are occupied by someone who
is dying; most end of life complaints relate to
relatives not being aware their loved one is
dying, lack of communication, poor planning
and uncoordinated care.

Judy Thorley

The talk then moved onto the area and
population served. Cheshire has a population
of 750,000 and a high prevalence of older
people. The area has two local authorities,
four CCGs, three district general hospitals,
three hospices, over 80 GP practices, 160
care homes and one prison.

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Discussions then centred on important
factors that contribute to the success of
partnership working. The group identified
three key aspects. Firstly, having a common
purpose is key – deliver your own agenda
and help your partners to deliver their
agenda. Secondly, agree on guiding
principles and how you will work together.
Finally, don’t underestimate the importance
of shared common humanity, as this is
something that matters to us all. Rapport

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and relationships are more important than
structures to facilitate partnership working.
The End of Life Partnership has a variety
of partners that provide advice, care and
support to patients, carers and the public.
These partners were illustrated via a support
circle and consist of: three hospices, four
CCGs, two local authorities, three district
general hospitals, Macmillan Cancer
Support, clinicians and care workers, local
communities, one strategic clinical network,
voluntary and faith sector, public health,
primary care (GPs), Carers Trust and higher
education and academic links.
Through partnership working, end of life
experience and care can be transformed,
explained the group. Through collaboration
and coordination, advanced care planning
can be put in place and issues which can
lead to contention at a later stage such as
preferred place of death can be avoided.
The aim of the End of Life Partnership is
to develop, implement and evaluate an
individualised End of Life Care Plan for use
across all care settin