Death is a part of life in hospitals and by preparing for it, and talking about it, we can ensure that more people are able to have the care they want at the end of their lives – whether that be dying at home, marrying their partner, or seeing a beloved pet for the last time.

Now we’re asking for your feedback to help us improve our end of life care (EoLC), by filling in a short survey.

Our EoLC was rated as good by the Care Quality Commission last year. This followed lots of hard work to improve care for our patients at the end of their lives, including setting up an EoLC committee to bring local partners together, which in turn led to better patient care.

We now want to make these services even better and have drafted a strategy. If you could take a few minutes to fill in a survey giving your feedback on the strategy, it will help our Palliative Care team see where to prioritise its efforts.

The team aims to tailor care to each individual patient and their family. Some people prefer to die at home, or in a hospice, rather than at the hospital, therefore by planning beforehand we can ensure every patient is able make choices at the end of their life.

Chief Nurse Kathryn Halford said: “We’ve made huge strides forward in recent years and now we need a clear strategy to help us continue our journey towards excellent care for every patient and their loved ones at the end of life.

“We’ve shared the strategy with our staff for their views, and it’s important that local people get involved too, so we can ensure our priorities match what is really important to them.”

The survey can be filled in here.

Pictured is our Palliative Care team.