The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found the quality of care provided by St Luke's Hospice, Sheffield to be Outstanding following an inspection in October 2016.
St Luke's Hospice provides a range of specialist palliative care services for adults within a dedicated building. It provides 20 inpatient beds along with outpatient services. In addition, the hospice has a community team who provide care and support for people and families in the home environment.
The service was rated Outstanding for being effective, responsive and well-led and Good for being safe, and caring making them Outstanding overall.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said:
“We found the care provided at St Luke's Hospice, Sheffield to be of outstanding quality.
“People, relatives and healthcare professionals consistently praised the exceptional standards of care, treatment and support provided by hospice staff. It was very clear to the inspection team that people received excellent care which was founded on best practice ensuring people were involved and central in the planning and review of their care. I commend all the staff at St Luke’s.
“What we witnessed at the Hospice was outstanding people-centred care – people told us that they took part in, and enjoyed, a wide range of activities and therapies which were extremely beneficial to their care and support. Central to this was the innovative manner in which the service was managed. We received exceptionally positive feedback about the excellent quality of care.
“It is for these reasons and many more that we have rated St Luke’s Hospice as Outstanding.”
Read the full inspection report here.
The report highlights a number of areas of outstanding practice, including:
- Inspectors could see that the provider trained its staff very well. There was a clear planned programme of training events for all staff which ran over the year. CQC looked at the training 2016/17 programme which clearly indicated which sessions the staff groups were required to attend. The sessions ran three times over the year to enable all staff to access this training.
- When inspectors checked to see if people were provided with a choice of suitable and nutritious food they found that all the people they spoke with gave exceptional feedback about the meals and innovation provided by the hospice surrounding their nutritional needs and told us staff always went out of their way to meet their preferences.
- Inspectors saw that there were advance care plans available for some people who were at end of life. These plans were so people's care could be managed in a place of their choice and their wishes around end of life care were documented. A relevant range of anticipatory medicines were written up on the medicine charts observed, and stock medications were available to respond quickly to patient needs in the case of sudden changes in condition.
It was very clear to the inspection team that people received excellent care which was founded on best practice ensuring people were involved and central in the planning and review of their care.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care