During February 2016, University Hospitals Birmingham was selected as one of just ten hospital trusts in England to take part in the ‘Building on the Best’ programme, to support improvements in the quality and experience of palliative and end of life care patients and their families.

The programme is funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and supported by a partnership between the National Council for Palliative Care, Macmillan Cancer Support, NHS England and the NHS Trust Development Authority in England.

Tracy Nightingale, Lead Nurse for End of Life, Bereavement and Chaplaincy Services, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham said: “We are delighted that we have been selected as one of the Trusts’ to be part of the ‘Building on Best Programme’. This not only acknowledges the high quality end of life care we deliver, but also gives us the opportunity to further develop and transform our services, improving the care we deliver to patients and their families’

The Building on the Best programme will run for two and half years and will provide support and knowledge to hospitals to ensure that those patients who are at the end of their lives and their families experience good quality and safe care. It will also facilitate patients to make informed choices that meet theirs and their family’s wishes.

As well as further developing the work of the Transforming End of Life Care in Acute Hospitals Programme, the programme will develop new areas of focus for improving end of life care. These will include making information more accessible to patients and their families, to enable more shared decision making; taking the opportunities offered by outpatient appointments to discuss care planning; improving the handover of information and records as people move between acute and secondary care; and improving pain and symptom management.

The Building on the Best programme was launched on 18 February 2016 and key staff from each trust will gather for the first time at a two day event during March at the University of Keele.

During May, QEHB will be supporting Dying Matters Awareness Week so keep an eye out for ways you can get involved and support the Trust’s End of Life, Bereavement and Chaplaincy Services.

If you would like more information please visit the Dying Matters website (see below) or contact Tracy Nightingale.

Email: Tracy.Nightingale@uhb.nhs.uk