St Clare Hospice

Updated 23 March 2020

St Clare Hospice is operated by St Clare West Essex Hospice Care Trust. The hospice opened in 1990. It is a charitable and NHS funded hospice in Hastingwood, near Harlow Essex. The hospice primarily serves the communities of West Essex and East Hertfordshire but accepts patient referrals from outside this area.

The hospice is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Personal care

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

The hospital has had a registered manager in post since 11 February 2019.

Updated 23 March 2020

St Clare Hospice is operated by St Clare West Essex Hospice Care Trust. The hospice has eight beds. Facilities include the inpatient unit, day therapy services and hospice at home services.

The hospice provides specialist care for adults that require palliative care.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the initial unannounced part of the inspection on 3 December 2019, along with a second unannounced visit to the hospice on 11 December 2019.

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.

The main service provided by this hospice was specialist palliative care.

Services we rate

Our rating of this service improved. We rated it as Outstanding overall.

We found outstanding practice in relation to the hospice care:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.

• Staff provided outstanding care, gave patients enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available seven days a week.

• Staff always treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, were active partners in their care and helped them understand their conditions. Staff recognised and respected the totality of patients’ needs and provided emotional support to all patients, families and carers.

• The service planned innovative care to meet the needs of local people, proactively took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment. This included people protected under the equality act and people in vulnerable circumstances.

• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

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

Patient medication administration by staff for planned short leave periods should follow national and local management of medicines guidance.

Heidi Smoult

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals

Updated 23 March 2020

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.

• Staff provided outstanding care and treatment, gave patients enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available seven days a week.

• Staff always treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, were active partners in their care and helped them understand their conditions. Staff recognised and respected the totality of patients’ needs and provided emotional support to all patients, families and carers.

• The service planned innovative care to meet the needs of local people, proactively took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment. This included people protected under the equality act and people in vulnerable circumstances.

• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.