The recent “Good Death Café” at the United Reformed Church, Nuneaton has been hailed a tremendous success as organisers and exhibitors spoke with over 200 people during the event about planning for ‘end of life’ in a positive and sensitive manner. The day was organised by George Eliot Hospital, Mary Ann Evans Hospice and Warwickshire North Clinical Commissioning Group to support ‘Dying Matters Awareness. The purpose of the hosting the Good Death Café in Nuneaton town centre was to raise awareness and provide helpful advice to the local public and professionals about dying, death and bereavement.
North Warwickshire & Bedworth’s Member of Parliament Craig Tracey also attended the event. Craig who has campaigned on Secondary Breast Cancer in Parliament has a keen interest in improving end of life care for patients. The local MP is the co-Chair of the Parliamentary Group on Breast Cancer.
This event allowed the public to have informal discussions about a range of death and bereavement issues with an eclectic and extensive array of exhibitors promoting local and national services available to the public focusing of dying, death and bereavement.
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust’s Lead Nurse for Specialist Palliative and End of Life Care, Kristy Clayton-Judd, said: “We all recognise that the subject of dying can be a difficult one to discuss for many people. This local event aimed to provide support and advice to make a difficult event in life just that little bit easier to prepare for. I’m overwhelmed with the response we had on the day. We know that discussions on dying can be very challenging and it’s a sad fact that many people still do not plan for their end of life. I’m encouraged that so many people were open to having a conversation with our team.”
Claire Henry, Chief Executive of the Dying Matters Coalition and the National Council for Palliative Care said: “I have full praise for the team for holding such a successful event. On the day they received support from local MPs and the Mayor as well as the hundreds who stopped by to have a conversation. The Dying Matters Week helps to increase the importance of talking about death and dying and they certainly helped to achieve this.”
Members of the Nuneaton NHS Trust's Specialist Palliative Care Team recently received a 'Highly Commended' award at the prestigious Health Service Journal Awards in the category 'Compassionate Patient Care' in 2015. The team were also finalists in the ‘Compassion in Practice’ awards in 2014, where Kristy was awarded with ‘A Leader Who Puts Compassion Into Action’ category.
Dr Grant and Mrs Clayton-Judd have concerns that there is no across the board standard of assessing or recording of people who need palliative care or of the quality of care given.
Good quality palliative care can make the difference in giving a patient and their family a distressing death or a ‘good death’.
Craig Tracey MP commented:
“Kristy and Julia have raised a really important issue. Palliative care is crucial to so many patients and families locally. I have worked with Breast Cancer Care to highlight Secondary Breast Cancer in Parliament and the importance of hospitals collecting data in order to improve end of life care. I look forward to working with Kristy, Julia and the George Eliot team to try to improve local palliative care.”
The local MP has offered his support and will be calling for a debate in parliament and raising concerns with Ministers.