Healthwatch Kent Awards Success
East Kent Hospital Trust has received recognition at the latest Healthwatch Kent Awards for three major projects.
The ceremony at Ashford International saw the Trust recognised for its ‘Caring with Compassion’ training and awareness raising film for staff, focussed on End of Life Care, plus a second accolade for its work around the Accessible Information Standard. Staff from the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital also played a major part in the East Kent Health Care Partnership ‘Pathway Project’ to support homeless people.
The ‘Caring with Compassion’ film was created by the palliative care team and Flix films, with funding from the East Kent Hospitals Charity. It follows a man in the last days of his life, and the experiences of his family, as a powerful reminder of the importance of seeing the person, not the patient.
Featuring some east Kent staff and sensitively shot at William Harvey Hospital (and other local locations including Pilgrims Hospices), it has been seen over 11,000 times and has been shared with charities and other health organisations across the country.
Dr Chris Farnham, Consultant in palliative medicine, received the award alongside Lucie Rudd, Consultant Nurse in palliative care. He said: “Not all people feel confident in working with dying patients, but they should be able to get the help and support that they need for those they are caring for. The film helps those that see it to know where to go to for that help and reminds us all why we work here in hospital – to help care for our patients and their families. Caring with compassion is a very simple message but so important to everyone.”
The ’Homeless Pathway Project’ is a collaborative project between the East Kent Health and Care Partnership (HCP), local integrated care board (ICB), independent health charity Pathway, Porchlight and Canterbury City Council. The initial pilot was launched in Margate’s QEQM Hospital and the positive pilot outcomes enabled the project to secure funding to expand the team and to roll the service out to the William Harvey Hospital and Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
Homeless Project Pathway Nurse, Millie Waters said: “The project is changing the way people experiencing homelessness, receive hospital care. Through a multidisciplinary and trauma-informed approach between specialist health and wellbeing professionals the revolving-door cycle is being broken and lives are being transformed.”
Receiving recognition for ‘Excellence in Inclusivity and Access to Services’, the Trust’s Patient Voice and Involvement team, Communications team and IT Projects team worked together to improve deaf people’s access to healthcare by improving provision of face to face BSL interpreting, by making the Interpreters Live service more prominent on our Trust's public website and for staff.
Karen Edmunds, Head of Patient Voice and Involvement said: “Deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL) face many barriers when using health services, and our work to reduce these barriers is making it easier for Deaf people to be fully involved in their healthcare and for our staff to ensure BSL interpreters are provided, either face to face or via video interpreting”
Trust Chief Executive Tracey Fletcher said: “These projects have rightly received recognition for the amazing difference they make to our patients and staff, and we congratulate all who were involved for their hard work.”