Agenda item

7.1

Peter Hartland, Chief Executive, St Luke’s Hospice, Sheffield, gave a presentation on the operation of St Luke’s Hospice, referring to the care provided, the business model, the recent development of the new In Patient Centre and challenges for the future.

7.2

In attendance for this item were Peter Hartland, Chief Executive, Judith Park, Deputy Chief Executive, and Mark Harrington, Risk Management Co-ordinator, St Luke’s Hospice.

7.3

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

·                     The nursing establishment at the Hospice comprised 71% qualified registered nurses, with the remainder being Health Care Assistants, who worked very closely with the registered nurses and received training and development, with a key focus on their caring skills and attitude. A dedicated consultant-led qualified medical team worked with the nursing team and other healthcare professionals to provide a full service for patients and families, both for in-patients and day patients at the Hospice, and in the community, where St Luke’s provides 12 community Specialist Palliative Care Nurses for the City. Supporting teams of Hospitality and Housekeeping staff worked closely with the clinical teams and ensured that nutrition and cleanliness were addressed without compromising nursing time dedicated to patients. All these posts – medical, nursing, support and community – were funded by St Luke’s.

·                     The annual funding requirement for the Hospice was £7.5 million, with just less than one-third of this amount (£2.34m in 2013/14) being funded by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). St Luke’s also had some separate arrangements with other parts of the NHS, in particular, the Post Graduate Deanery, which funded a portion of the salary costs of junior doctors on rotation at the Hospice (part of their training programme), and other more minor funding for particular projects from time to time. Other than this, the remaining £4.5m annually required to run St Luke's was raised through fundraising, supported by some limited investment income.

·                     The Hospice had to raise £4.5 million each year through fundraising.  This comprised receipts from the charity shops, legacies, corporate partnerships, individual donors and funds raised from special community events.  75%-80% of this fundraising was generally deemed to be secure and, due to the  success of the charity shops and the goodwill of donors, the Hospice had always been successful in achieving this level of funding.  The Hospice could only hope that such funding could be achieved in the future, and would continue to work hard in publicising its excellent work and highlighting its fundraising activities.

·                     Whilst there had been an increase in engagement between GPs and the Hospice Community Team over the last few years, and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had continued to emphasise the importance of end of life care to GPs, there was still a number of GPs who were not engaging with the Hospice or other palliative care services in the City.  The CCG would continue to target such GPs.

·                     The Macmillan Cancer Care Charity differed from St Luke’s in many ways, despite some misunderstanding by the public. Macmillan was a national, rather than local, charity. It concentrated on support for cancer, unlike St Luke’s, which provided care for all life-limiting conditions, not just cancer. St Luke’s provided ongoing, recurrent services to the people of Sheffield, and funded them for the long-term. Macmillan tended to focus more on providing initial funding for projects or initiatives, in the form of pump-priming, for some specific areas – using its charitable funds that had been generated nationally – and once the initial funding had ceased, these services, if they continued, were funded by either the statutory services or third sector. In most cases however, they would continue to carry a Macmillan badge once Macmillan’s initial funding contribution had ended, which was a condition attached to Macmillan’s participation.  

7.4

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       notes the information reported as part of the presentation, together with the responses to the questions raised;

(b)       requests that the Chair meets with Jackie Gladden, Senior Commissioning Manager, Long-Term Conditions and End of Life Care, Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group, to discuss GP engagement with the Hospice; and

(c)        (i) thanks Peter Hartland and his colleagues at the Hospice for hosting the meeting, arranging a visit of the new In Patient Centre and providing lunch and (ii) acknowledges the excellent work being carried out at the Hospice.