January 17, 2017 12.32 pm This story is over 86 months old

Lincoln County Hospital to benefit from new end of life care team

A new team is working to improve end of life care at hospitals in the county, including Lincoln County. United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT), together with St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice, have recently appointed a new matron and two end of life coordinators to ensure patients are given access to the best possible care, in…
Kerry Bareham, matron for palliative and end of life care

A new team is working to improve end of life care at hospitals in the county, including Lincoln County.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT), together with St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice, have recently appointed a new matron and two end of life coordinators to ensure patients are given access to the best possible care, in the right place for them.

Research shows that at any one time, 30% of patients in a hospital are in their last year of life.

Matron for palliative and end of life care, Kerry Bareham, said: “My role is about demystifying what palliative and end of life care is.

“There is real anxiety about talking about death and dying and therefore we are not very good at it.

“This is about enabling patients and their families to be involved and understand their plans of care and giving them access to timely support in the community and working with the third sector too.”

St Barnabas Hospice director of patient care, Michelle Webb, said: “I am confident that this new and exciting matron role, along with the facilitators, will support improvements for patients and staff in the acute trust and wider healthcare community.”