We carried out a review of the data available to us about St Julia's Hospice on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about St Julia's Hospice, you can give feedback on this service.
Our rating of this location went down. We rated it as good because:
St Julia’s Hospice is operated by Cornwall Hospice Care Limited. The hospice provided care and treatment within nine inpatient beds. Cornwall Hospice Care Limited also provided a service at Mount Edgecumbe hospice which was located within St Austell.
The hospice provides care and treatment for patients with a life-limiting condition aged 18 years or over.
We inspected this service using our focussed inspection methodology. This unannounced inspection took place on 18 July 2018. We focussed on the safe and well-led domains following concerns raised to us. The concerns were in respect of staffing levels, staff training, low staff morale and allegations of bullying.
Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.
Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
There was a registered manager in post, Dawn Tame-Battell. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run.
During the inspection visit, the team spoke with 12 members of staff, including registered nurses, health care assistants, consultants, occupational therapist, administration staff, hospitality staff, community engagement nurse, head of care, the clinical lead, the chief executive officer, the medical director and the registered manager. We also spoke with four patients to seek their views of the service provided. We reviewed five sets of patient records and relevant documents, including policies, procedures and meeting minutes.
The Care Quality Commission last inspected the service in May 2016 and rated the provider as outstanding overall. We have not re-rated the service at this inspection.
We regulate hospice services but we do not currently have a legal duty to rate them when they are inspected as a focussed inspection. We highlight good practice and issues service providers need to improve and take regulatory action as necessary.
We found the following areas of good practice:
We found areas of practice that require improvement:
While staff reported incidents, learning was not currently shared between the provider’s two hospices and there was no agreed standard used to assess the seriousness of an incident. Medicine errors were investigated and appropriate action taken, but this learning was not shared across the organisation.
Following this inspection, we told the provider it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.
Amanda Stanford
Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (South)
The provider, Cornwall Hospice Care Limited is a registered charity committed to providing specialist palliative and end of life care for people, over the age of 18 years, irrespective of diagnosis. The provider runs two hospices in Cornwall, Mount Edgcumbe in St Austell and St Julia’s in Hayle. St Julia’s Hospice, is registered for 10 beds, and provides specialist care for people with life limiting illnesses. It is purpose built and located adjacent to St Michael's Hospital in Hayle. It provides inpatient care for people needing help with complex symptom management, pain control and end of life care. People are referred to the hospice by health professionals, in liaison with their GP or hospital consultant. At the time of the inspection, eight people were being cared for at the hospice.
Services included physiotherapy and lymphoedema clinics. (Lymphoedema is a chronic long term condition that causes swelling in body tissues. It can be a primary or secondary condition). The service had built a dedicated outpatient suite so they could provide more day services nearer to people's home, but this facility had not yet been commissioned for use.
The hospice had a team of about 50 volunteers, who worked in various roles such as greeting people and visitors at reception, chatting to people, serving lunch and making drinks and snacks. They also helped with laundry and flower arranging.
The service had a new registered manager, the Director of Patient Services who registered in December 2015. They managed both hospices, supported by a unit manager at each location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
People received outstanding care from highly motivated staff who developed exceptionally positive caring and compassionate relationships with them. The service had an open and positive culture that placed people at the heart of everything they did. Staff treated people with sensitivity, dignity and respect. People’s emotional and spiritual needs were met by staff who were knowledgeable and confident to care for and comfort them. Families and those that mattered to the person were supported to spend quality time with them.
People received excellent care, based on best practice from experienced staff with the knowledge, skills and competencies to support their complex health needs. For example, the hospice used national best practice tools to assess people’s symptoms each day. This helped staff address each person’s physical and emotional needs which improved their quality of life. People received their medicines on time and in a safe way, and were kept peaceful, comfortable and pain free.
Hospice staff were committed to promoting excellent end of life care for people in Cornwall, by providing a programme of education and training for a wide range of health and social professionals working in hospitals, care and nursing homes and in the community. This meant more people received high quality end of life care from skilled staff in their preferred location and avoided hospital admissions. The hospice used link roles to lead and actively champion staff to provide people with evidenced based, best practice care. For example, for Motor Neurone Disease (MND), foot care and falls prevention.
The service was committed to excellence through research to identify ways to further improve their service. The hospice was awarded a prize by the Royal Society of Medicine in the research category section in 2015, for pioneering work in spinal pain relief. This meant those people were able to enjoy a much better quality of life. Hospice staff supported medical students to undertake a research in action study. They used verbal interviews to get feedback from seriously ill people about their quality of life, which informed their ongoing care and treatment.
The hospice provided a 24 hour advice line for people and health professionals. This provided advice on symptom management and pain relief for people having end of life care in the community, hospital and nursing homes across Cornwall. This helped avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital and has been extended to include an email advice service, with consultant staff providing a response within 24 hours.
Hospice staff worked in partnership with other organisations to benefit people receiving end of life care. For example, hospice staff worked with NHS staff in a specialist dementia care unit in Bodmin to develop the staff team to deliver high quality end of life care. This meant those people, who had very complex mental health needs, could remain in the specialist unit and receive end of life care from staff who knew and understood them.
People, relatives and professional feedback consistently showed the service provided at the hospice was holistic and person centred. Staff went that extra mile to respond to people’s individual needs. For example, a member of staff did podiatry training to fill a gap in local service provision and a nurse did training in complementary therapies to provide people with relaxation through aromatherapy and massage.
The hospice worked in partnership with other professionals to provide support at joint clinics for people with chronic long term conditions such as Motor Neurone Disease. This meant people benefitted from a seamless service, rather than having to attend separate appointments with each specialist. Feedback from Healthwatch Cornwall and other professionals showed hospice staff were taking a lead role to influence and further improve end of life services in Cornwall. (Healthwatch Cornwall is the independent people’s champion for publicly funded health and social care services).
People said they felt safe and well cared for at the hospice. They were protected against the risks of potential abuse because staff were trained in recognising potential signs of abuse. They knew how to report concerns internally and to outside agencies, and were confident concerns would be investigated and dealt with. People were cared for by sufficient numbers of skilled and experienced staff. People said staff spent time with them and their families and provided support, comfort and reassurance. Robust recruitment checks were undertaken before staff and volunteers began to work for the service to ensure they were suitable to work with people.
People were protected because risks were identified and managed. Accidents and incidents were reported, with actions taken to minimise avoidable risks for people. Environmental risks were assessed with actions taken to improve safety. Equipment, gas and electrical appliances were regularly serviced and there was an ongoing programme of repairs and maintenance. Staff reduced the risks of cross infection for people through good hand hygiene and regular cleaning.
People had access to high quality food, and their nutritional and hydration needs were met by excellent catering services. People were offered choices and were fully involved in making decisions about their care and treatment. Care plans clearly explained how people would like to receive their care, treatment and support and their preferred place of end of life care.
People’s human and legal rights were respected because staff understood their responsibilities in relation to the mental capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). They knew how to complain and were confident any concerns would be taken seriously. Staff were open and honest when things went wrong and were committed to learning and responding to people’s feedback and experiences.
People received a consistently high quality of care because senior staff led by example and set high expectations about standards of care. The provider had a range of robust systems to monitor the quality of care provided, which included feedback surveys, audits and monitoring staff practice and made continuous improvements in response.
We also spoke with people who were visiting friends and / or family who all provided positive feedback. We were told; 'I felt at peace within an hour of us arriving here', 'the staff feel like part of an extended family and they look after all of our family and make sure we are OK' and 'nothing is too much trouble, X tells me they feel safe here and that means I don't worry when I go home'.
We found the nutritional needs of people were met and we observed and people told us that there was a wide choice of food provided, which was of a high quality.
Medicines were managed safely and staff ensured people received their medication as prescribed by the medical staff.
Staff were supported in their roles by the provision of appropriate training. Staff told us they were respected by the organisation and felt valued and supported.
Records were maintained appropriately and people who used the service were informed about how to access their personal records.
One person told us "There is such good atmosphere when you walk in the door." Another person told us "It is so tranquil and calm. I receive five star care. "
They all said the environment was pleasant, restful and clean.
Everybody said they were fully consulted about their care and treatment. People told us continuity of care was very good and they felt supported. One person said:" It is a wonderful facility and communication is excellent."
People spoke highly of the meals provided and told us they were always given choices. They said that meals were well presented and appetising.
There were sufficient staff to meet the needs of the people who required care and treatment.
People said they knew how to raise any concerns and were given the opportunity to provide feedback on the level of service received. Everyone we spoke with told us the staff were very helpful, kind and knowledgeable about their needs. One person said:" they are so thoughtful".
We were told the care provided was excellent and that staff were professional, kind and extremely caring; nothing was ever too much trouble. Comments included, 'The care is definitely to a high standard', 'It is amazing care compared to other services', 'As soon as my relative has pain the staff are there to help' and 'The doctors are amazing and always make five minutes to talk to us'.
People told us that there were enough staff to care for them. Comments about the staff included, 'I trust all the staff, they provide amazing care', 'The staff are really lovely' and 'We are very lucky, the staff work well together like a family and they make you very welcome'.
People using the service told us they could air their views at any time to any of the staff or the management team. They told us about the counselling service and how helpful this was to them.