Agenda item - Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategy Outcome Measures: Dying Well

Report of the Director of Public Health (copy attached).

22.1    David Brindley, Public Health Programme Manager, presented the item. Also presenting were Tanya Brown-Griffith and Helen Cobb, ICB Senior        Manager, Community Commissioning and Transformation.

22.2    Mr Brindley told the Board that end of life care is delivered by a variety   of providers including NHS organisations, hospices, local authorities and     `private businesses. The key metric used to measure the performance          of end of life services is the percentage of deaths occurring at home, as           most people express a preference to die at home. On this measure,      Brighton & Hove performs better than the England average, with low    percentages of people dying in hospital. Local statistics also show a low    rate of deaths in hospices, but there may be an issue with the data here          as it does not seem to accurately reflect the scope of the local hospice           sector. There are also a relatively low number of people on the local   palliative care register, but this may just reflect city demographics. There         is lots of good work going on, including the establishment of a local      ‘death café’, training for front line workers, and various events.

22.3    Ms Brown-Griffith added that the new Neighbourhood Health Teams will    help develop appropriate end of life community services.

22.4    Ms Cobb told members that there is a Pan-Sussex Palliative and End of          Life Care (PEoLC) Programme Oversight Group with stakeholder           representation from across the Sussex system.

          Examples of work undertaken by the group include the introduction of         pan-Sussex documentation and procedures for the provision of   medication at end of life, and the distribution of a “Respecting Faith and           Culture in end-of-life-care” handbook which provides useful information     for health and social care staff involved in providing end-of-life-care.

22.5    In response to a question from Cllr Asaduzzaman on data on the           percentage of people from particular faith or ethnic backgrounds dying at home, Mr Brindley told the Board that the only current data on this is national. However, a local needs assessment is planned.

22.6    Adam Fazakerley noted that work is ongoing with Sussex Community   NHS Foundation Trust (SCFT) no establish a virtual ward to help people transition from hospital to end of life care at home.

22.7    In response to a question from Stephen Lightfoot on support for    homeless people, Ms Cobb informed the Board that SCFT and Martlets      have been working closely together on this issue. She agreed to circulate     more information outside the meeting.

22.8    Nigel Sherriff mentioned the ‘Good Grief Hastings’ festival. DB agreed to follow this up outside of the meeting.

22.9    RESOLVED – that the report be noted.