BROOMFIELD Hospital has reached a gold standard for its end of life care.

Doctors, nurses and therapists on two wards at the hospital in Court Road, Chelmsford, have been trained to help identify patients who are likely to be entering the last year of life – and then discuss and plan the months ahead with them.

Charlotte Hoctor, the end-of-life care facilitator at Broomfield, said: "It's about starting those difficult conversations because people don't want to think about their own mortality.

"They have discussions with patients about coming into their last year and ask them if they've thought about where they'd want to be cared for in the future, who's important to them, and who they'd give power of attorney."

helping to reduce hospital admissions

Charlotte added: "It's given staff confidence, it can help reduce hospital admissions by getting people to their preferred place of care and has improved communication with our partners in the community. It puts the patient at the centre and wraps care around them."

The clinical Staff of Baddow and Braxted wards trained for two years for accreditation from the national Gold Standards Framework (GSF), which is recognised by the Quality and Care Commission (CQC).

The teams trained in London and were then tasked with embedding what they had learnt into the culture on their own wards. They have trained in how to identify patients in the last year of life by using frailty scores, the number of admission and their comorbidities – and then start advance care planning.

Junior sister Kara Clements, of the Baddow Ward team, said: Everyone is really proud on the ward and it has made a big difference to our patients."