Agenda item

To receive a report which shares the updated overview of End of Life Care in Kent and an action plan which sets out areas for improvement and gaps that have been identified and how they will be addressed.

1.    Anne Tidmarsh (Director of Older People and Physical Disability) introduced the report which shared the updated overview of End of Life Care in Kent and an action plan which set out areas for improvement and gaps that had been identified and how they would be addressed.

a)    In response to comments and questions, Anne Tidmarsh said that prisoners were supported by the NHS. Although, the help that prisoners received was dependant on the services that were being provided within the prison and dependent on where the person would be going after they left the prison. She said that this was part of the End of Life Care in Kent action plan to be looked at with NHS to ensure that the transition was as smooth as possible.

b)    In response to a question, Anne Tidmarsh said that good progress had been made under the Sustainability Transformation Programme. She said that a lot of joint-working had taken place within health and social care around training and workforce development. She said that although there was a lot of work still to be done, measures were in place to ensure that staff received sufficient training for end of life care.

c)    In response to a question, Anne Tidmarsh said that a Kent shared care record was one of the outputs that the STP aimed to achieve. Work had been carried out around the ESTHER model and whether Kent could provide an ESTHER care record and an application for smart phones, but it was important to understand the required content, ensure that content was suitable for the Kent and Medway shared care record, and prevent duplication.

d)    In response to a question, Anne Tidmarsh said that there were still challenging outputs to be achieved within the STP action plan, regular progress updates would come back to future Committee meetings. She said that supervisors and managers were responsible for ensuring sufficient training was in place, in order to support staff who were supporting people that were receiving end of life care.

e)    In response to a question regarding to the Liverpool Care Pathway, Anne Tidmarsh said that she would be able to provide more information to Members outside of the meeting with regards to whether the pathway was still being used and if so, in what way. She said that it was important for Kent to ensure that an individual receiving end of life care felt comfortable in the final hours or days of their lives.

f)     In response to a question, Anne Tidmarsh said that Buurtzorg was a Dutch nurse-led model which looked at the skills of a community nursing team and how best to deliver high-quality, low-cost care.

2.    Mr Gibbens said that end of life care was a very serious and important issue. He informed Members that an End of Life Care event would be held in February 2018, the event would look more closely at progress that had been made and how closely Kent were working with health colleagues and GP’s. He added that joint-working was encouraged and requested that the item be referred to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

3.    In response to comments and questions, Anne Tidmarsh said that within social care, there was no separate pathway for end of life care. She said that Kent were working with staff to ensure that sufficient training had been put in place to allow them to have a clear understanding of what needed to be done when dealing with end of life situations.

4.    RESOLVED that the report be noted.