Groundbreaking partnership will bring more specialist support closer to home for local people

Four hospices have joined forces in a pioneering collaboration that is transforming the way specialist palliative and end of life care is delivered across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, demonstrating innovation and the value that hospices can bring to overstretched health systems.

Compton Care, Dougie Mac, Katharine House Hospice and St Giles Hospice have come together to create a more connected, responsive and sustainable model of specialist palliative care across the region. Backed by investment from NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB), the initiative will expand hospice services across the county, enabling more people to access expert care closer to home, remain in their preferred place of care and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions. Not only good for patients and families, this initiative also provides an alternative to hospital admission and relieves significant pressure on hospital beds.

Believed to be one of the first collaborations of its kind in England, the four hospices will deliver the Rapid Response and Hospice Virtual Ward, combining their expertise, resources and experience to provide equitable access to complex palliative and end of life care, regardless of where someone lives within the county.

At a time when demand for palliative and end of life care continues to rise, the hospices are demonstrating how organisations can work differently, combining their strengths to deliver more coordinated, accessible and responsive support for patients and families.

Building on the success of the hospices’ 24-hour Specialist Advice and Referral Line, which provides access to expert advice and support across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, the initiative marks the next step in their shared ambition to improve care and outcomes for local people. The investment will support the expansion of specialist rapid response and palliative crisis intervention services, ensuring expert hospice care is more readily available when a patient’s condition changes or urgent support is needed.

The services will also support people to leave hospital sooner, where appropriate, with specialist hospice teams helping patients return home or move to another appropriate care setting. By providing faster symptom management, proactive care planning and expert support when needs change, the service will help more people approaching the end of life to receive holistic care in their preferred place, improving experiences for both patients and their families.

The service reflects the collaborative’s ambition to provide more proactive, coordinated support for people with complex palliative and end of life care needs.

Rachel Overfield, Chief Executive of Compton Care, said:

This is a significant moment for our four hospices and the communities we serve. What makes it so special is that independent hospices from across the region have come together with a shared goal: improving specialist palliative care for local people. By combining our resources and expertise and developing a louder voice, we’re creating something bigger than any one organisation could achieve alone, ensuring more people receive the right care and support when it matters most, while helping to ease pressure on wider health services.

Here at Compton Care, we’ve seen how innovative approaches such as our Virtual Ward, which has been running for over two years, can help people receive specialist support at home, often preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and enabling them to spend precious time where they most want to be.

The real significance of this partnership is that it allows us to build on that learning collectively, combining the strengths of all four hospices to improve access, consistency and quality of care across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. We believe this collaborative approach has the potential to become a leading example of how hospice and NHS partners can work together to focus on what matters most to patients and families.

The expansion of palliative rapid response and Virtual Ward services across the region will help more people receive timely care at home, manage symptoms effectively and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

Specialist hospice teams will work closely with NHS partners to provide coordinated support when needs change, helping more people remain in their preferred place of care and ensuring families have access to expert guidance when they need it most.

The programme is expected to support hundreds of people each year, helping more patients be cared for in their preferred place, reducing avoidable hospital admissions and freeing up valuable NHS capacity.
By working together, the four hospices are creating a stronger voice for hospice care, developing new ways of working and demonstrating the value of collaboration between the voluntary sector and the NHS. Most importantly, people across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent will benefit from more responsive, joined up and personalised support.