Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme - Leeds Project

Delivering Choice in end of life care for people in Leeds

Celebrating Improvements and Developing Quality for the Future

This event was held on 27 May and hosted by the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme. The event celebrated the improvements in end of life care implemented through the programme’s Leeds Project, with the aim of maintaining momentum for continued development in the future.   

The event was attended by many representatives from health and social care organisations across the Leeds and wider Yorkshire and Humber region. Key speakers included the Chief Executive and the Director of Research and Innovation from Marie Curie Cancer Care, and the Consultant in Palliative Medicine from Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust.

The event covered the many achievements of the three-year Leeds Project, working in partnership, in providing better quality care and greater choice to terminally ill patients at the end of their lives.

Copies of the presentations from the event and summaries of feedback from the six workshops to address future challenges in end of life care provision are available below.

• Summary of the event (word doc)
• Presentation - National Overview (ppt) 
• Presentation - Achievements of the Leeds Project (ppt)
• Presentation - Evaluation of the Leeds Project (ppt)

Workshop presentations:

• The beginning of the end - starting the conversation about end of life care (ppt)
• Bereavement (word doc)
• Delivering high quality care in the last days of life in all settings (ppt)
• End of life care in care homes (ppt)
• Widening access to end of life care - No Presentation (workshop was run as a verbal discussion)
• Education and training (ppt)

• Palliative Care Co-ordinator for Patients and Carers

A Palliative Care Co-ordinator for Patients and Carers was appointed to explore the range of existing support services for patients and carers in Leeds. They asked patients, carers and staff their opinions about their experiences of using support services. They identified any gaps in service provision and made recommendations as to how these could be improved.

• South Leeds Day Hospice

It was identified that there was inequity of access to specialist palliative care for patients living in the South Leeds area. Sue Ryder Care: Wheatfields Hospice and St Gemma’s Hospice worked together, with support from the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, to extend their current day case and outpatient facilities to serve the South Leeds population.

A day care facility has been introduced at St George’s Centre in South Leeds. This is open on a Friday from 10am until 3pm and there is a multidisciplinary day care team to support patients. Referrals into this service are via the normal referral route for hospice day care. Please click here for further details.

• Palliative Care Discharge Facilitator

A Palliative Care Discharge Facilitator was employed to help improve the discharge process for palliative care patients, allowing more patients to be discharged to their preferred place of care.

• Marie Curie “Meet & Greet” Scheme

The Marie Curie “Meet & Greet” Scheme is operated by the Marie Curie Nursing Service and aims to enable discharge for patients who are at the end of life by providing experienced and skilled nurses and Senior Healthcare Assistants who will provide care for up to the first 24hrs following discharge. The service is available in situations where a patient and/or carer may require additional support following discharge.

• Palliative Care Ambulance

The Palliative Care Ambulance has been introduced to provide a dedicated transport service for palliative care patients, which is specific to their needs.

• Complex and Palliative Continuing Care Service (CAPCCS)

The CAPCCS service aims to support palliative care patients at home by providing Health and Personal Care Assistants whose core role is to assist in the provision of care, treatment and support to palliative care patients and their carers.

• BME Palliative Care Link Worker

A BME Palliative Care Link Worker was employed to work with Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities across Leeds to improve access to palliative care services for all communities within Leeds and ensure equity of access. As there are many diverse communities within Leeds, there needed to be further investigation to understand the range of ethnic minority communities and their needs at the end of life to promote access to palliative care services.

• Education & Development Facilitator & Administrator

The aim of the Palliative Care Training and Development Facilitator & Administrator was to coordinate the provision of palliative care training for staff, enabling them to care for palliative care patients and their carers to the highest level, improving the patient experience. This website was also developed as part of their work to improve access to information for both staff and patients and carers.

• Systems Integration Analyst

A Systems Integration Analyst investigated the current IT systems in place in the various health and social care organisations in Leeds and made recommendations for ways in which information could be accessed and shared between these organisations in the form of a Palliative Care Register.

• Palliative Care Facilitator in Care Homes (x 2)

Two Palliative Care Facilitators in Care Homes were employed to roll out CHESS (Care Homes End of Life Supportive Services). CHESS was a service improvement programme which supported the care homes taking part in the delivery of quality palliative care to their residents. It aimed to improve the resident and family experience of care delivery during the last 6-12 months of life by offering support through this tailor-made programme for Leeds.
It also aimed to encourage choice in place of care so that residents can be supported to stay at their care home towards the end of life and avoid distressing and inappropriate admissions to acute hospital wards.

A report has been prepared by the International Observatory on End of Life Care which evaluates both the CHESS programme and the CAPCCS team. The report can be found by clicking here 

Click here for details of the first 33 care homes in Leeds who have taken part in this pioneering work.