Marie Curie Hospice and Community Services North East

Updated 22 March 2024

Marie Curie is a charitable organisation, registered with the Charity Commission, which raises funds to offer care and support through terminal illness. First established in 1948, the service has been caring for people living with any terminal illness, and their families, for over 60 years. Marie Curie is the UK’s largest charitable employer of palliative nurses and professionals. It is also the largest charitable funder of palliative care research.

The Marie Curie Hospice and Community Services North East offers individualised holistic care, guidance and support to adults with life shortening conditions and terminal illness. This includes people requiring symptom control, psychological support, rehabilitation and end-of-life care. In addition to a team of highly experienced doctors and nurses, the hospice has specialists in a wide range of roles including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social work and bereavement support. Support services are extended to those close to patients including families, children and carers. Support continues into bereavement and beyond.

The North East services provide regulated activities including in-patient care, urgent hospice at home care, hospice at home planned overnight care, a wellbeing hub for outpatient and group support. Additional voluntary led services include a companionship service.

Marie Curie Hospice and Community services North East cover a large geographical area and provide services within the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care system. Community services are specifically commissioned by local authorities in conjunction with North of England Commissioning Support. Commissioned services are provided specifically for the local area for which they are commissioned and is based on local identified need. In-patient and wellbeing hub services are provided through 50 % commissioned funding and 50% charity funding.

The service was registered for the treatment of disease, disorder or injury and had a registered manager in place.

We last inspected the service in 2016 when it received a rating of ‘outstanding’.

Updated 22 March 2024

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as outstanding because:

• 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 provided a high standard of evidence-based care and treatment, consistently gave patients enough to eat and drink in response to individualised plans, 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 and those close to them, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available seven days a week.
• Staff were consistently committed to treating patients and those close to them with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, found innovative ways to meet their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided strong, caring and respectful emotional support to patients, and those close to them. Staff worked in partnership with patients and those close to them and were intuitive to their needs.
• The hospice was an active partner in planning care to meet the needs of local people. The service actively engaged with extensive local organisations to understand the changing needs of the local populations. They took account of patients’ individual needs and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it.
• Leaders were dedicated to providing an inclusive, compassionate and highly effective service. They ran services well using reliable information systems and consistently supported staff to develop their skills and succeed in the delivery of a high-quality service. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued and were focussed on providing best practice to meet the needs of patients and those close to them. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service was consistently committed to seeking constructive engagement with patients, those close to them and the community to plan and manage services. All staff were empowered and committed to improving services.

Updated 22 March 2024

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as outstanding

We rated this service as outstanding overall because it was good in safe, and responsive and outstanding in effective, caring and well led.