Beech Hurst residents to receive the very best care

Home news

Feb 28, 2012

Staff at Care UK’s Beech Hurst nursing home are starting a rigorous two-year programme of training and evaluation to gain the country’s highest recognition for end of life care.

The Gold Standard Framework Care Home Accreditation (GSFCH), approved by the NHS, Department of Health, Age UK and MacMillan Nurses, is designed to acknowledge the highest levels of end of life care and encourages choice and dignity for the patient as well as sensitive and effective support for relatives.

The GSFCH training programme is a three-stage quality assurance programme that includes training for all staff in the home and stringent monitoring, documentation and evaluation to ensure standards are kept at the very highest level. The home is then inspected to ensure all the techniques are fully embedded and that staff are consistently following the guidelines.

The home’s Clinical Lead, Emilio Estevez, and Registered Nurse Indu Paramasivan will soon begin the highly specialised training in pain management, end of life planning, medication, advanced nursing techniques and counselling which they will then share with their colleagues in the home.

Resdient choice is key to the programme and staff at Beech Hurst will increasingly be able to make it possible for more patients to stay in the home until the end, rather than moving to hospital.

Scarlett MacDonald, who manages the  home in Butlers Green Road, said: "The end of a person’s life is such a sensitive time for them and their relatives. So much of the anxiety can be removed by planning and building relationships with the people involved. This begins before a resident sets foot within the home.

"This is our residents’ home and many would like to stay here rather than move to hospital as their condition develops. Here, they know the surroundings, they are comfortable and with their friends. They and their relatives can then choose to have active medication or pain relief.

"With this accreditation we hope to continue to be able to offer people the dignity and choice they deserve."