Meridian Healthcare’s White Rose House and Hyde Nursing & Care Centre are amongst the first 35 care centres in the UK to have received the Gold Standards Framework (GSF) Quality Hallmark, a nationally recognised standard which identifies care centres who have achieved excellence in their end of life care provision.

Care Centre Managers Helen Hubbert from Hyde and Joanne Hempstock from White Rose House attended an awards ceremony sponsored by Help the Aged and Omega in Birmingham on the 25th June to receive their award and plaque on behalf of the teams at their Care Centres.

The Gold Standards Framework for Care Homes Training Programme (GSFCH) aims to improve the quality and organisation of care for people in the last stages of life. The programme has 3 main aims: 1) To improve the quality of care for all residents 2) To improve the collaboration GPs, Primary Care Teams and Specialists 3) To reduce the number of hospital admissions in the final stage of life, enabling more to die with dignity in the home, if that is their wish. To qualify for the Quality Hallmark accreditation, care centres must have fully undertaken the GSFCH programme for over 9 months and rooted the framework into their care provision for over 6 months and then gone through a rigorous accreditation review known as ‘Going for Gold’ in order to qualify for the award.

Clinical Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care, Pauline Sumner commented: ‘The level of commitment and dedication shown by each home has been impressive and the homes have worked extremely hard to improve palliative care provision for their residents. Communication and collaboration with the wider primary health care team has significantly increased and staff members within each home have reported improved confidence and skills in their provision of palliative and end of life care.’

Care Centre Manager Helen Hubbert commented: ‘As a team we are honoured to receive the Quality Hallmark as I am sure Joanne’s team is as well, it is a testament to the dedication both care teams have shown to furthering their knowledge through training and communication links with other specialists in the area, always with the quality of care for their residents paramount in their minds.’

White Rose House is the first Care Centre in the Kirklees area to have received the GSF accolade, Joanne added: ‘We are very proud to display the Quality Hallmark and will continue our efforts to ensure we maintain best practice in palliative and end of life care and for that matter all areas of care here at White Rose House Nursing & Care Centre as I am sure Helen will at Hyde Nursing & Care Centre.’

Ends.
• Photographs show: Care Centre Manager Helen Hubbert and some of the team at Hyde Nursing & Care Centre.

Notes:
• Meridian Healthcare own 25 Care Centres throughout the North of England.

• Website: www.meridiancare.co.uk

• Meridian Healthcare’s Stamford Court also in Tameside and Westwood Lodge in Wigan are also currently working towards attaining the Quality Hallmark.

For further information please contact: Tessa Matthews, Meridian Healthcare, 0161 368 9099 tmatthews@meridiancare.co.uk