Primrose Hospice

Updated 21 March 2024

Primrose Hospice is a service that operates under The Primrose Hospice Limited. Primrose Hospice is a charitable organisation offering care and advice to patients living with a life-limiting illness and supporting families in the Northeast Worcestershire area. Care and treatment are provided by a clinical nurse specialist, qualified nurses, health care assistants, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist. Services are based at Primrose Day Hospice (please note the day hospice location falls outside regulated activities and it was only the care and support provided by clinicians that was inspected and included within this report). Primrose Hospice does not have an inpatient unit. Patients can receive care and support in their own homes when appropriate. A pilot hospice at home service was introduced in April 2023.

The current registered manager has been registered with the CQC since September 2022.

The service is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Treatment of disease or injury.

Under this regulated activity the service provided:

• Hospice services.

Primrose Hospice was last inspected on 18 May 2016 and was rated good overall and good in all domains. No regulatory breaches were found at the last inspection.

Updated 21 March 2024

We inspected this service using our focused inspection methodology. We carried out a short notice announced visit to Primrose Hospice on 14 November 2023.

This inspection only looked at the key questions safe and well led, the ratings for all other key questions will remain the same as the last inspection. Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate

Our overall rating of this location stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had required training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. Staff controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients and kept good care records. Staff managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.
• 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.

In addition:

• Leaders managed priorities proactively to ensure the quality of care was maintained within financial challenges and effectively addressing issues the service faced.

We found the following outstanding practice:

• The green and sustainable initiatives undertaken by the service.
• Initiatives for the service to be an employer of choice.
• The staff survey (2022/2023) undertaken by an independent company identified the service as one of the best performing hospices benchmarked against 32 similar services.

Updated 21 March 2024