Issue - meetings

The Committee was advised that Healthwatch Oldham had undertaken an End of Life Review to gather the experiences of families and carers who have supported a family member through palliative and end of life care in Oldham.  The review had been triggered by the highlighting of issues faced by carers supporting loved ones at the end of their life, comments about the lack of community bereavement support, mixed feedback from families accessing palliative and End of Life (EOL) care, and an increase in the number of Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) complaints. 

The Review had been undertaken between July and December 2019 and sought feedback from the general public, from families with experience of supporting a family member at the end of their life, and from professionals involved in EOL care and support.  The detailed responses arising from the consultation, along with the key findings, were fully detailed in the Healthwatch Oldham report “Talking About Dying: A Review of Palliative and End of Life Care in Oldham“, a copy of which was appended to a submitted report.  The Healthwatch Oldham report made thirteen detailed recommendations aligned under the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Commitments which sets out what individuals with palliative and end of life care needs can expect across Greater Manchester and provides a baseline to measure the quality of care provided in Oldham.  The Committee was advised that Healthwatch Oldham had also recently concluded a DNAR survey: while there had been a number of positive experiences reported, a number of more serious areas of concern had been highlighted which would add weight to the training recommendation within the Report.

Ben Gilchrist of Healthwatch Oldham invited the Committee to consider the Report and to provide any comments or observations as to the findings and draft recommendations prior to the formal conclusion and sign-off of the report.  The following matters were considered accordingly in respect of the recommendations –

Recommendation 6 – Hospice at Home – further to a query concerning the reliable access to pain relief 24 hours a day and the prescribing and supply of such medication, while it was understood medication would be administered by the District Nursing service, clarification as to the intentions behind the recommendation, including prescribing, would be sought;

Recommendation 8 - Crisis Care - further to a comment that promotional information in respect of EOL care needed to also be culturally sensitive as well as available in a range of languages, it was acknowledged the recommendation did not capture the detail and this would be looked at to make sure the issue was brought out more.  Ben Gilchrist undertook to refer a query to colleagues as to any consideration of the recommendations of a previous Voluntary Action Oldham study into the experiences of the Asian community;

Recommendation 11 – Training – A Member referred to an occasion they were aware of where carers for an individual with a DNAR notice in place had called an ambulance but then attempted resuscitation on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10