The Rotherham Hospice

Updated 24 June 2019

Rotherham Hospice is operated by Rotherham Hospice Trust. The service opened in 1996 and underwent significant expansion in 2011. It provides specialist end of life care for patients with a range of life-limiting conditions living in Rotherham and the surrounding area.

The hospice appeal was formed in 1988. Day patients were accepted following completion of the building in mid 1996, with an 8 bedded ward opening in 1997. Then part of the 8 bedded unit was refurbished in 2010 and a 10 bed extension opened in April 2011. The hospice now provides inpatient accommodation for up to 14 patients, day services for up to 75 patients per week, and care for 200-300 patients a month in their own homes.

It receives funding from a local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and through charitable donations.

The hospice had a registered manager in post since 2011. At the time of the inspection, the registered manager had recently left the service. An interim registered manager had notified CQC that they had taken over the role temporarily. An application for full registered manager status was being processed.

At the previous inspection in August 2016, the provider was rated as requires improvement. The safe, responsive and well led domains were rated as requires improvement, with the other domains rated as good. At this inspection, we rated all five domains as good. Following this inspection, the hospice submitted action plans to demonstrate how they would be addressing the issues found during our inspection.

Updated 24 June 2019

Rotherham Hospice is operated by Rotherham Hospice Trust. The service provides hospice care for adults. The hospice cares for over 2,200 patients and their families from across the Rotherham and surrounding areas. Rotherham Hospice is registered as a charitable trust and also receives funding from the NHS.

The hospice has 14 inpatient beds. They also support 200 to 300 people per month in their own homes. We inspected both the inpatient unit and services provided in people’s homes during this inspection.

We carried out an unannounced inspection on 9 and 10 March 2019 using our comprehensive inspection methodology. Our inspection was unannounced (staff did not know we were coming) to enable us to observe routine activity. We inspected all five key domains.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Services we rate

Our rating of this service improved. We rated it as Good overall because;

• The service had addressed all of the issues found at our last inspection in 2016 and had continued to monitor these areas carefully.

• Medicines were well managed. They were given to patients when needed and recorded appropriately. Those giving medicines had their competencies checked regularly by a medical supervisor.

• Care plans put the person and those close to them at the heart of their care and took account of their physical and spiritual needs and choices. Staff completing care plans did so accurately and with people’s active involvement and consent.

• The service was responsive to the needs of patients. Good communication between doctors and nurses working in the community and in the hospice itself, meant that moving between services was straightforward and people received joined up planning for their care.

• The hospice had a dedicated and responsive staff and volunteer team who protected patients’ privacy and dignity, and ensured they were given enough to eat and drink. People told us that the care they received was good.

• The hospice worked well with other organisations to ensure people received good quality care. Strong links with local voluntary groups and the local hospital meant that patients could access the right services for them and those close to them.

• The service was supporting local care homes by providing advice and guidance. We saw that less people were being admitted to hospital unneccesarily as a result, and more people were able to stay in their home or care setting if this was their wish.

However, we also found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:

• Not all volunteers and staff had the right safeguarding training at the right levels. Trustees had not received training in safeguarding adults, and most staff had not received training in safeguarding children. Although the service supports mainly adults, children visited the hospice daily and therefore staff should have been offered appropriate training.

• Not all areas used by patients had call bells so patients may not have been able to summon assistance if they fell or became unwell when alone in these areas.

• One of the organisation’s risk registers was not reviewed in line with policy and had not been kept up to date.

• People’s experiences, comments and suggestions were not being used in a methodical way to drive service improvements, and further work was needed to ensure that barriers were identified and removed for those who could potentially find it more difficult to access the service.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it should make improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.

Ellen Armistead

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, North.

Updated 24 June 2019

Hospices for adults was the only activity provided at this location.

The hospice had one inpatient unit providing specialised end of life care for 14 patients. Hospice at home services and day services were also delivered.

We rated each of the five domains, safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led as good.