The Rowans Hospice

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

The hospice worked well with external partners, patients and families when planning and delivering patient care and treatment, and planning for the future. People's care plans fully reflected their physical, mental, emotional and social needs including those related to protected characteristics under the Equality Act.

The hospice understood the diverse health and care needs of people and their local communities to ensure care was joined up, flexible and supported choice and continuity. People received information and advice which was accurate and up to date. The hospice encouraged people to share feedback and ideas or raise complaints about their care, treatment and support and used this as an opportunity for learning and improvement.

The hospice was accessible to all public and anyone could access their services at any time. The hospice supported people to plan for their future and encouraged patients to complete their personalised future planning document. In order to better support patients and their families, the hospice provided staff with advanced communications course for having end of life conversations.

This service scored 100 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Patients and their families received personalised care that was responsive to all of their needs through a wide range of services provided by the hospice. These included all aspects of physical, spiritual, social, emotional and psychological care.

The service held conversations with patients about what mattered to them and completed What Matters to me documents which enabled them to focus on any individual support needs the patient or their families may have.

Staff gave us an example of how they were able to care for a patient with autism through information from What Matters document. By utilising this, staff were able to move patient to a quieter room and avoid motion sensor alarms as too many noises caused distress.

One patient told us ‘The staff here are angels without wings. They’ll always take the time to talk with me and make the effort to learn about me and my background and they know my likes and dislikes. They’re happy to go along with whatever I want’.

Through the ‘Meerkat Service’, the hospice provided specialist support to children and young adult who had an adult family member with a life-limiting illness or who had been bereaved of an adult close to them. The service worked alongside other agencies and schools and ran support groups for children and young people to attend.

Patients could pick and choose from a wide range of activities and exercises. Some of these included, arts and crafts, carers education and future planning. Patients could take part in chair based exercises which

A patient feedback for the Living well services read ‘Thank you for the warm welcome you gave me and my husband, everyone was so helpful and encouraged us to include in as many things as we could get involved in.’

The hospice understood the diverse health and care needs of people and their local communities.

The community palliative care team were based in the same building and worked intrinsically with the hospice team to ensure patient care was joined up and coordinated well. The hospice also worked alongside other services and partners and involved them in discussions and decisions around future care of the patient including transfer to another care provider.

The hospice had a dedicated social support team who took part in care planning meetings and supported with discharge planning. Hospice at home staff worked alongside district nursing service in the area to provide 24/7 care to people in their own homes.

Through the Living Well Centre, the hospice was looking to working collaboratively with Macmillan Harbour Cancer Support Centre where patients and families could receive the much needed support throughout their cancer journey across Southeast Hampshire.

The hospice was in the process of starting up a dedicated support service for the serving and ex-service personnel who were living with or caring for someone with a serious or life-limiting illness within the Gosport area. This was alongside the existing veterans groups held at the living well centre.

Patients received accurate and up to date information from staff about their care and treatment in a way in which they understood. Patients and their families had access to information in different formats if they needed this.

A patient at the inpatient unit told us ‘There is always a full discussion about any decisions made and doctors always allow me time to ask questions’.

When patients have communication difficulties the hospice used occupational Therapist to access communication boards or other tools. Staff told us some of their Motor Neuron Disease patients used eye-gaze and gave us examples of when they were able to facilitate this.

Staff could access translators via telephone, video-call or if needed – face to face. In addition to this staff also had access to british sign language (BSL) interpreters.

One patient told us ‘The doctors discuss matters with me everyday and tell me what options I have about medication.’ Patients commented that they felt informed staff were very good at providing them with accurate and up to date information.

For patients who couldn’t use the call bells, the inpatient unit had rooms with baby monitors.

Information was handled in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidance.

Patients knew how to feedback on their care and were encouraged and supported to do so. The service sought feedback from people, their relatives, staff and community professionals using various different methods, which was overwhelmingly positive.

The hospice used a QR code which patients could scan to complete a form for compliments, comments and suggestions. For complaints, in the first instance patients could raise complaints with a member of the hospice team or talk to any staff members. If they felt their concern wasn’t resolved, patients and their families could make a formal complaint through letter or email. Information on these were displayed throughout the hospice.

The service used concerns and complaints as an opportunity for learning and improvement. Staff told us how feedback received from young people through the meerkat service had helped shape the therapeutic group. As a result, young people were able to dip in and out of sessions as they chose and weren’t expected to commit to a set number of sessions.

The hospice ensured feedback of concern and complaints were acknowledged and investigated. Post inspection we were provided with the last 3 complaints received by the hospice. We reviewed these and found them all to be appropriately addressed in a timely manner. Relevant information and outcomes were shared with the person raising the concern.

Staff also told us about the Meerkat hope notes which was a pocket size resource tool written by children to help support one another.

The hospice was accessible to all public and anyone could access their services at any time. Referrals were from GPs, community nurses or social prescribers.

For patients who couldn’t physically get to the service, the hospice at home team visited patients in their own homes which helped reduce hospital admissions for end of life patients. The hospice spiritual team also went out to visit people in their own homes.

Staff told us the doctor on call would see the patient at their home to admit when there were ambulance delays. The Meerkat team were also able to accommodate a home visit if needed.

The hospice ran two outpatient clinic for patients each week for patients who could not visit the centre.

The living well services was available Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm. The service encompassed a range of both face to face and virtual activities and provided people with opportunities to meet new people.

In response to the 2015 report ‘Equity in the provision of palliative care in the UK: Review of evidence’, the hospice conducted their own follow up review of the equity of hospice services in their area in December 2023. Following completion of the review, the hospice made a number of changes some of which included, evolving previous day care services into an open access ‘Living Well Service’ and getting more involved in patients in Portsmouth city through the Hospice at Home service.

The hospice also initiated a community engagement survey in order to find out if there was more, they could do to ensure accessibility to those that would be open to their service.

The hospice proactively sought out ways to address barriers in order to improve people’s experience, act on information about people’s experiences and outcomes and allocate resources and opportunities to achieve equity.

Staff gave us an example of when the hospice had received a complaint from a daughter of a patient where it was considered that they were treated differently because of the colour of their skin. Learning from this was identified and shared across the service.

One of our four core principles that underpinned the hospice charity strategy was to tackle inequality and widen access to their services for all marginalised groups in the community and commit to actively engage with these groups through community outreach, education, partnership working and openness to learn.

The hospice provided specialist support to patients and their families at the earliest opportunity to consider their future care needs, including advanced care planning and preparing for the future to empower people to make informed choices based on their wishes and preferences. Patients had one to one appointments with the doctors to final out their wishes and avoid unwanted treatment.

These conversations allowed patients to feel empowered, in control, have a sense of security and helped them focus on what mattered to them so they could live as well as they could for the time they had left.

Staff worked closely with patients and their families regarding their plans for the future and encouraged patients to complete their personalised future planning document. In order to better support patients and their families, the hospice provided staff with advanced communications course for having end of life conversations.

We were given examples of when the hospice supported patients and families to celebrate significant events by bringing them forward. Staff at the hospice prided themselves in supporting families in personally caring for those at the end of life, including particular customs or rites where indicated.

Staff completed the do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) documentation and recommended summary care and treatment forms (ReSPECT) after consultation and in line with guidance which staff had access to.