Wisdom Hospice

Updated 28 October 2021

The Wisdom Hospice is operated by Medway Community Healthcare. Medway Community Healthcare is a community interest company. Community interest companies are social enterprises that use their profits and assets for the public good.

The Wisdom Hospice is primarily funded by the NHS but also received funding from charity donations. They provide a multi-disciplinary team approach to palliative care and support adult patients approaching the end of their lives. They also provide support for the family and friends of these patients.

The Wisdom Hospice had 15 beds on their inpatient ward, a community team to support patients in their own homes, and a team that visited the local acute hospital to offer palliative support to patients in hospital. The service provided training and education to people with palliative care needs.

The Wisdom Hospice had a day hospice that provided individual and group therapy. However, when we visited this was closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The location is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. They have legal responsibilities for meeting the requirements set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

We last inspected this service in April 2016 when we rated it good overall and found no breaches of regulations.

Updated 28 October 2021

Our rating of this location stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• Staff provided good care and treatment, gave patients enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available seven days a week.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• Not all staff had completed their mandatory training.
• Not all staff were clear on where they were required to put on PPE.
• The service did not have a system to record the monitoring of their cold storage facilities.
• The service did not audit patient’s preferred place of death against their actual place of death.
• The service did not audit their use of do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation orders.
• The service needed to improve the way it collected feedback from patients.
• The service did not complete all their routine audits.
• The service did not have structured engagement with their patients.

Updated 28 October 2021

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as good. See the summary above for details.