Strathcarron’s Hospice at Home service has been awarded the highest rating of ‘Grade 6’ and ‘Excellent’ across all evaluation parameters inspected by the Care Inspectorate.

The local Hospice charity provides specialist palliative and end of life care in the community, which is free of charge to the people of Forth Valley and North Lanarkshire. 

 

The specialist service was initially launched by The Big Lottery Fund bid, to be fully funded for five years. The grant ended on 31st July 2019 and as a result, the Hospice at Home service has not been funded for four years. The team currently supports nearly 400 local people and their families each year, and the service continues to keep running as a direct result of the kind generosity of the community that it serves.  

 

Irene McKie, Chief Executive, Strathcarron Hospice says. “We’re delighted to have been awarded the ‘full set of 6’s’, the highest grading by the Care Inspectorate. This is the fifth consecutive Care Inspectorate report that has graded us as excellent. As a charity, the NHS only fund 1/3 of our Hospice services, but this doesn’t include Hospice at Home at all.  

The local community walk, run, cycle, jump, bake and go to many other amazing efforts to keep what the Care Inspectorate called an ‘excellent, sector leading’ service is remarkable. If it wasn’t for local supporters and fundraisers, Hospice at Home just couldn’t keep going.  

The report highlighted that our Hospice at Home team spoke of ‘feeling privileged’ to be able to support people to die with dignity and respect at home, as is their wish. This is testament to the compassion and professionalism of our skilled team. They build meaningful relationships - at the worst times in the lives - of the people and their loved ones that they’re caring for”.  

 

The Hospice at Home service was evaluated at ‘Grade 6’ - the highest grading awarded for leadership and supporting people’s wellbeing. 

 

The Care Inspectorate report said, “Strathcarron Hospice at Home were sector leading and supported experiences for people which were of outstanding high quality. People were respected and listened to because their wishes and preferences were used to shape how they were supported. 

 

Staff demonstrate the principles of the Health and Social Care Standards in their day-to-day-practice, and families of people they had supported at the end of their life had nothing but praise for the service. Staff recognised changing health needs and shared this information quickly with the right people”. 

Palliative and end of life care is physically and emotionally complex, and each person that Strathcarron Hospice at Home service supports’, has their needs centred at the heart of these conversations. The nursing and health care assistant teams listen, care and respect people’s physical, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual needs. This holistic approach allows people to have choices, and positive perspectives to live the best quality of life possible, enabling them to die at home, as is their wish.  

 

Strathcarron Hospice has to raise £14,632 daily to provide the specialist end of life care and services to individuals and their families across its communities.  

Hospice at Home costs £474,000 per annum and saves an average of six beds days per patient. The cost to care for a Hospice at Home patient (based on an average 6 days) is £1,437. This costs breaks down to £239 per patient, per day.  

The Care Inspectorate also interviewed family members, examples below:  

 

"The staff all shared the same caring skills". 

"They were all professionals with kind hearts”. 

 

People were respected and listened to ensuring that their wishes and preferences were used to shape how they were to be supported. The service was excellent at giving people time to talk and support, and to be empowered to discuss decisions about their end of life care, with one person telling us "they always asked what we wanted and had time to answer our questions". 

Donate to Hospice at Home