Anybody who has ever had experience of losing a relative to a terminal illness will be well aware of the vital service that’s provided by palliative care nurses.
We hear today that the Island NHS and The Earl Mountbatten Hospice are joining forces to create Mountbatten Nurses.
From April this year, the new nursing service (Mountbatten Nurses) will replace the current nursing service provided by the Hospice.
The Marie Curie Cancer Care currently donate £27,500 to the Hospice to contribute towards palliative care for Island residents.
We understand that the new service will be jointly funded by the Hospice and NHS Isle of Wight to provide support to those patients whose preferred place of care is at home.
Existing nursing staff, who are employed by NHS Isle of Wight, will be unaffected by this change (apart from the name change) and service to clients on the Island will be better co-ordinated.
Helen Shields, Director of Commissioning at NHS Isle of Wight says: “Research for the Island’s End of Life Care strategy showed that although the service is able to support a significant number of people in their home there are still many people who die in hospital or in a location other than their home. The change is designed to provide a building block for the service to expand and grow to meet the demand for more people to be cared for and die in their own home”.
NHS Isle of Wight has begun discussions to look at how Marie Curie can continue to contribute towards the development of End of Life Care on the Island.
Tom Hughes-Hallett, Chief Executive at Marie Curie Cancer Care, comments: “The Island’s health service is unique in the English health care system and we recognise that it is important that services are organised to ensure they are fully integrated. I am looking forward to continuing to work closely with NHS Isle of Wight and I am confident that, with our long experience and expertise in the provision of a wide range of palliative care services, we can support the Island’s ambitions to improve and expand services for Islanders”.
Helen Shields, Director of Commissioning at NHS Isle of Wight says: “Marie Curie Cancer Care has been a strong supporter of palliative care on the Island for a long time. This change, agreed between our three organisations, is more than just a change of name. It should help to integrate palliative care nursing services on the Island into our wider arrangements for end of life care and provide Islanders with a seamless service”.
Graham Elderfield, Chief Executive of Earl Mountbatten Hospice said “We are committed to improving care for people on the Island at the end of their lives and the launch of our new ‘Mountbatten Nurse’ will enable us to provide an integrated Community Nursing Service for End of Life Care.”
