Saint Francis Hospice hosts Care Workforce Roundtable
Representatives from hospices across Essex and London came together to discuss the challenges they face to recruit and retain healthcare professionals to a career in hospice care. Increasing complexity and diversity of care needs in our population was also on the table, as were innovative ways of meeting these needs in the community.
Saint Francis Hospice hosted the first Care Workforce Roundtable on 30th September. There was a great sense of solidarity and enthusiasm for hospices to work together to attract the staff they need to provide compassionate end-of life-care to their communities.
“It was a real privilege to host our first Care Workforce Roundtable at Saint Francis Hospice, for colleagues from across London’s and Essex’s hospices as well as Hospice UK,” said Grazina Berry, Chief Executive Officer at Saint Francis Hospice.
“We are all grappling with the same issues ?" how do we attract and retain more staff to provide increasingly complex care to people at the end of their lives, how do we ensure that their needs and wishes are fulfilled at the place of their choosing, how can hospices create effective and sustainable career pathways for practitioners wanting to progress, when we struggle to compete with the NHS on pay… We had great discussions, shared ideas and good practice ?" all towards more collaborative ways of working.
“I feel very proud to be working in this sector and alongside such talented and committed colleagues, and I am confident that collectively, we will do our best to solve these problems.”
Toby Porter, Chief Executive Officer at Hospice UK, said it was great to hear hospices share exciting ideas about finding the right ways to learn and make the reality of working in hospices appeal to a new generation of care workers, particularly newly qualified nurses and healthcare assistants who may not know hospices very well.
Toby added, “It was fantastic to see so many excellent hospices coming together to talk about these challenges as everyone is broadly dealing with similar opportunities and challenges with their workforce. Days like today bring that into the open and it was a joy to be here and to spend time with such a diverse group of people.”
The response from hospice representatives was incredibly positive.
Sara Robins, Director of Clinical Services and Deputy CEO at Arthur Rank Hospice, and Dr Eva Lew, Medical Director at Farleigh Hospice, said meeting colleagues face to face made for an even richer conversation.
Dr Sam Edwards Medical Director at North London Hospice, said, “Workforce is one of the biggest challenges for all independent hospices and we learn more by working together.”
Jackie Tritton, Chief Clinical Officer at Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care, said, “It has been really great to listen to the details of different hospice providers in terms of what they have been working on and to have the opportunity to share that learning.
“You realise there is a bigger problem and having a Hospice UK approach to it will help as we will have a greater voice.”
Adjoa Forson from St Christopher’s Hospice, said, “It is so good to meet people from other hospices.
“We are all sharing the same challenges and the same issues and the willingness for us all to get around the table and try and resolve the challenges and came up with new ideas, may broaden our solutions.”
“We would like to continue these important and productive conversations on a more regular basis and will be planning a series of workshops and events over the coming year”, concluded Grazina.
