Latest news with #SarahHolmes
BBC News
12-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Hospice inpatient unit to reopen 'as soon as possible'
An inpatient unit at a hospice in Liverpool will reopen "as soon as possible", a charity's chief medical officer has told a council 26-bed unit at Marie Curie in Woolton closed last July due to a shortage in specialised nursing people campaigning to secure the future of the hospice staged a protest outside Liverpool's Town Hall the day after travelling to London to deliver a petition to the charity's Sarah Holmes told the Liverpool City Council adult social care and health committee the charity recognised that people would always need inpatient care and there were no plans to sell the building. The hospice has been shut for nine months and a long-term decision has yet to be made as to whether the unit can reopen with inpatient the meeting on Tuesday, hospice chiefs admitted they could and should have communicated better over plans for the site. Councillor Angela Coleman said a "lack of clarity" had "kept people hanging on" and added to the distress felt by those Sarah Holmes, Marie Curie chief medical officer, apologised to the gathered campaigners and councillors for the distress caused by the closure of the inpatient said there were no plans to sell the building on Speke Road and efforts had been made to deliver rapid response and virtual ward services since the inpatient said the charity had not set out to cause anxiety among families and patients and Marie Curie remained committed to providing end of life care "now and in the future" in added that the charity had faced issues around funding and cited a £26m deficit in the last financial year with expectations the service would be in the red again this Hill, associate director of strategy, integration and partnerships NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said: "We are working as hard and as quickly as we can to get those beds reopened."This is the highest priority for us and we are working every day to move this forward." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
End-of-life care demand challenging for paramedics
Paramedics are experiencing wide-ranging challenges in responding to an increasing number of end-of-life care patients, according to research from the University of Southampton. The study highlights the issues paramedics face, including lack of patient information, barriers to administering medication, and insufficient funding. Dr Sarah Holmes, Chief Medical Officer at Marie Curie, said: "We know that pressures on ambulance services are significant, and this study highlights the importance of equipping paramedics with the right tools to do their work." Duncan Robertson, chief paramedic for South Central Ambulance Service also welcomed the research. "It is great to see this important area of research getting published and it will help ambulance services frame how we can better support our paramedic workforce to provide excellent care at the end of a patient's life", he said. But he did go on to warn that, "as with any research, the paper is not to be read in isolation, but contributes to a wider body of knowledge". According to the paper, an ageing population coupled with shortfalls in community healthcare services is placing an increasing reliance on paramedics to deliver care during a patient's last year of life. Researchers conducted an online survey of over 900 paramedics across all 11 NHS trusts and found paramedics frequently attend patients in their last year of life, with 57 per cent estimating they do so at least every seven shifts, and 89 per cent at least every 14 shifts. But prior to arrival, 45 per cent of paramedics reported never or rarely knowing the patient's end-of-life status – just 14 per cent said they often or always knew. Dr Natasha Campling, Associate Professor at the University of Southampton and lead author of the paper said: "Our research shows that paramedics are being asked to make such complex decisions without all of the necessary information, support, resources and training to do so." She went on to say: "For patients at end of life, when paramedics are called to scene they need to be able to, for example, distinguish between reversible causes that require hospital treatment and those associated with underlying condition(s) or the dying process that can be relieved through palliative care and appropriate symptom management. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Dying face postcode lottery, says daughter We need to normalise death and dying, says carer Hospice leaders warn hundreds of beds out of use South Central Ambulance Service Marie Curie University of Southampton
