Esher hospice awarded GSF status to provide national quality end of life care training to care homes

Princess Alice Hospice in Esher will provide care homes in the south east with training in a national quality standard of end of life care, after becoming a regional centre for the Gold Standard Framework (GSF).

The GSF in Care Homes programme will train care home staff to be equipped to care for dying residents in order to reduce hospitalisations and the numbers of people who die in hospital.

The training will also enable front line care home staff to provide residents with a better quality of life, meeting their wishes with more personalised care delivered in the home.

As a regional centre, Princess Alice Hospice will increase the number of care homes adopting the scheme to improve the quality and coordination of care provided across the south east.

Jane Berg, head of education at Princess Alice Hospice said: “We are delighted to be awarded Gold Standard Framework regional centre status.

“The GSF Care Home programme can give frontline staff the skills they need to offer more personalised care and ensure the care homes have the structures in place to support residents and their families at end of life.”

After a 2004 pilot scheme, the GSF developed the programme for care homes.

Evaluations have shown improved quality of care provided, improved staff confidence, improved processes/documentation and a significant decrease in crisis hospital admissions (about a third) and decrease in hospital deaths (almost half).