Four hospices unite to transform end of life care across Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent

Groundbreaking partnership will bring more specialist support closer to home for local people

Four hospices have joined forces in a pioneering collaboration that is transforming the way specialist palliative and end of life care is delivered across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, demonstrating innovation and the value that hospices can bring to overstretched health systems.

Compton Care, Dougie Mac, Katharine House Hospice and St Giles Hospice have come together to create a more connected, responsive and sustainable model of specialist palliative care across the region. Backed by investment from NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB), the initiative will expand hospice services across the county, enabling more people to access expert care closer to home, remain in their preferred place of care and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions. Not only good for patients and families, this initiative also provides an alternative to hospital admission and relieves significant pressure on hospital beds.

Believed to be one of the first collaborations of its kind in England, the four hospices will deliver the Rapid Response and Hospice Virtual Ward, combining their expertise, resources and experience to provide equitable access to complex palliative and end of life care, regardless of where someone lives within the county.

At a time when demand for palliative and end of life care continues to rise, the hospices are demonstrating how organisations can work differently, combining their strengths to deliver more coordinated, accessible and responsive support for patients and families.

Building on the success of the hospices’ 24-hour Specialist Advice and Referral Line, which provides access to expert advice and support across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, the initiative marks the next step in their shared ambition to improve care and outcomes for local people. The investment will support the expansion of specialist rapid response and palliative crisis intervention services, ensuring expert hospice care is more readily available when a patient’s condition changes or urgent support is needed.

The services will also support people to leave hospital sooner, where appropriate, with specialist hospice teams helping patients return home or move to another appropriate care setting. By providing faster symptom management, proactive care planning and expert support when needs change, the service will help more people approaching the end of life to receive holistic care in their preferred place, improving experiences for both patients and their families.

The service reflects the collaborative’s ambition to provide more proactive, coordinated support for people with complex palliative and end of life care needs.

David Webster, Chief Executive of Dougie Mac Hospice, said:

“As an independent hospice with over half a century of experience caring for palliative and end of life patients and their families, Dougie Mac has a reputation for innovation and sustainable growth in services, as well as a recent “Outstanding” rating from our regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

“However, this unique collaboration of four hospices across Staffordshire feels like a genuine landmark event. Not only have we secured collective funding for the next two years to provide specialist support beyond the extensive community services we already deliver, but by unifying our resources and expertise we have shown that hospices can spearhead essential change in our health system. We may even have created a template for others to follow, with the voluntary sector and the NHS partnering in a way that provides personalised, joined up care to people when they most need it, whilst freeing up valuable NHS beds.

“The four hospices share a goal of expanding hospice care at home, preventing unnecessary admissions to hospital and widening access to specialist, holistic, hospice care. This pioneering collaboration helps us do that at scale! Hundreds more patients will benefit from our collective approach and I’m personally delighted and proud to be part of this contemporary example of hospice care.”

The expansion of palliative rapid response and Virtual Ward services across the region will help more people receive timely care at home, manage symptoms effectively and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

Specialist hospice teams will work closely with NHS partners to provide coordinated support when needs change, helping more people remain in their preferred place of care and ensuring families have access to expert guidance when they need it most.

The programme is expected to support hundreds of people each year, helping more patients be cared for in their preferred place, reducing avoidable hospital admissions and freeing up valuable NHS capacity.

By working together, the four hospices are creating a stronger voice for hospice care, developing new ways of working and demonstrating the value of collaboration between the voluntary sector and the NHS. Most importantly, people across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent will benefit from more responsive, joined up and personalised support.