Issue - meetings

The Board received a report from the Chief Commissioner, NHS Halton CCG and Dr Rhian Thomas, from Grove House Practice, which provided an update on the Palliative and End of Life project in Halton.

Members were advised that the project was established in November 2020 after a funding bid was secured from Macmillan Cancer Support, which funded the role of Macmillan Project Manager and the extension of the Programme Manager.  A storyboard was communicated with stakeholders and the public to share insight and a monthly stakeholder steering group was established to support and drive the project forward.  Appended to the report were the Project Milestones and activities tracker.

It was noted that the project would support the requirements of Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care – a national framework for local action 2015-2020. 

The report discussed the CCG’s requirement to deliver against the national requirements for Palliative and End of Life Care and the NHS Right Care data strategic priorities.

The following responses were given to Members questions:

·         It was hoped that the outcomes felt by people following the consultation would be – a single point of access; a better model of care all round; gold standard framework in place; and improved service delivery;

·         The approach to the ways of broaching end of life care was crucial for patients, carers and families;

·         A reduction in the numbers of deaths in hospitals would be expected with this new system although it was difficult to put a figure on it, as some patients chose to die in hospital;

·         Healthwatch data stated that 70% of people would prefer to die out of hospital and it was about having those difficult conversations with people nearing end of life; and

·         51% of deaths in Halton occurred in hospital and there were only comparisons made with other demographically similar CCGs in the country – none was currently available to compare nationally.

RESOLVED:  That the Board

1)    note the experience based design engagement and co-design approach and feedback as per of the project; and

2)    acknowledges that the Palliative and End of Life Care project should provide Halton with a more integrated and co-ordinated provision of care for palliative patients and their families.