Archived: Trimar Hospice

People were involved in discussions about their health and were able to make informed choices about their care. People told us the hospice was a greatly valued service in the area. One person said 'I love coming here.' Another person said 'I like it.'

Records showed that equipment was maintained but the routine checks by hospice staff required review to ensure equipment was available, was within expiry dates and faulty items were identified at the earliest opportunity.

We saw that staff were respectful and supportive to people. Staff were qualified and trained to carry out their job. One person said 'I love the ladies who look after us.' Another person said 'all the staff are ready to listen to you.'

Information about the complaints process was readily available to people. No complaints had been made and no one raised any concerns about the service at the time of our visit.

One member of staff told us "I would always have a discussion about diagnosis, insight and prognosis. It automatically opens up the conversation and helps me with more advanced care planning."

During our inspection we saw two occasions which demonstrated that staff only used the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards when it was considered to be in the person's best interest.

We saw policies related to safeguarding and spoke with staff about their understanding of these. From the documentation we reviewed and discussion we had it was clear that people who use the service were protected from the risk of abuse.

One person using the service told us "The benefit for me is that I've got attention from expert staff who know what they're doing."

We were shown an audit of questionnaires returned between July and November 2012. During this period seventeen questionnaires had been sent to people using the service and fourteen of these had been completed and returned. Of these seven rated the service as 'excellent' and a further four as 'fantastic', 'great' or 'very good'.