Centre of Excellence

St Catherine's continues to receive excellent thanks and appreciation from patients and families in relation to the work of all Hospice care teams.  In addition, the level of financial support that continues to be donated to the Hospice is an indication of the high regard in which the Hospice is held as an excellent provider of specialised palliative care. 

St Catherine's has a number of regulators including the Care Quality Commission who can make unannounced inspections under the Health & Social Care Act 2008.  Their latest report on St Catherine's, following their unannounced inspection of 2 August 2011, is available on their website.  The report speaks very highly of the care provided by St Catherine's and we are proud of this achievement.

St Catherine's is committed to achieving and exceeding national standards including Quality Markers and guidelines for End of Life care set by National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE).

St Catherine’s has more than 26 years’ experience in providing specialised palliative care and is a registered charity, accountable to local people.

Lymphoedema is an important part of the care we offer at St Catherine’s and our dedicated Lymphoedema centre based in the new Woodside Clinic, offers three specially-designed treatment rooms.

We now also offer a paediatric Lymphoedema clinic, making us one of only four specialist centres in the UK to offer this service.

Thanks to our excellent facilities and the expertise of our Lymphoedema team we are able to offer a wide range of intensive specialist treatments along with coaching for patients on self-care techniques.

Our focus on best-practice in Lymphoedema care has led to staff training in innovative new therapies, including a dance and movement treatment called Le-Bed, which was developed in the USA. This ground-breaking therapy is offered as enjoyable dance sessions suitable for all abilities, including wheelchair users and comprises movement aimed specifically at opening up the lymphatic system. Our expert team teaches the therapy to patients who are then able to practice what they’ve learnt at home.

Cornerstone is the programme we have designed at St Catherine’s to ensure multi-professional working in order to ensure that each patient receives the best combination of care and therapy for their specific needs.

This integrated way of working brings together colleagues from all clinical disciplines in the Hospice and when needed, colleagues from local hospitals and other healthcare agencies.  Video conferencing makes this process quick and efficient.  

St Catherine's has continually developed and improved its facilities since its opening in 1985.  To achieve this, the Hospice has been successful in winning funds from external sources like the National Lottery, various Department of Health budgets and charitable trusts.  In addition, special donations have made all the difference.

Recent developments have included more single rooms with en-suites and facilities for a relative to stay overnight if a patient wishes, new day therapy facilities offering more rooms for private consultations, a new main kitchen, laundry, central heating system and entrance foyer.

An ambulance entrance has been built for greater privacy on arrival and extra car parking makes visiting less stressful especially since all spaces are free of charge. 

Our gardens are extensive and recent improvements made possible by Rotarians and various armies of volunteers from local companies create a setting that patients and families greatly appreciate. 

St Catherine’s works closely with NHS and healthcare professionals and is recognised as the centre for excellence in the local area.  We are the preferred provider of End of Life Care education and training to local health and social care teams, nursing and care homes.

We also provide patients, carers and colleagues opportunities to take part in nationally-recognised research studies as part of the first network of researching hospices in the UK.

Amongst recent innovations introduced at the Hospice is the SystmOne electronic patient records system.  This excellent system is designed to ensure that all key healthcare professionals have real-time information about a person’s progress including the current treatment regime.  This helps to make sure that patient data is accurate, up-to-date and most importantly that care is joined up.

Patient feedback tells us that in some healthcare settings they have become unnecessarily irritated when they are continuously asked the same questions by one clinician after another.  This drains confidence because people worry about whether or not their records are being properly written up.  SystmOne helps to minimise these sorts of issues by bringing all patient records together in one secure place. It also has the added advantage of not being written in a variety of handwritten forms some of which might be illegible! 

Housed on a secure, 'remote' server owned by the strategic health authority, SystmOne is linked with palliative care teams at all hospitals within St Catherine’s catchment area, this helps to make sure that patients can receive appropriate care as quickly as possible and without fuss even if they have just transferred to or from the Hospice.

The system is also linked to the NHS ‘national spine’, which means that any administrative details, such as changes of address, will be immediately highlighted for correction.  The system is specially designed to protect the confidentiality of clinical information.