The Iain Rennie
Grove House
Annual Conference 2011
“Working together for excellence in palliative care – who are our partners?”
120 delegates met at the Green Park Conference Centre on Weds 12 th October for the IRGH Annual Conference. The delegates were a mixture of hospice managers and staff, GP, community and hospital nurses and palliative care nurses from a variety of settings from across the country who had gathered together to hear speakers talking about their work and their different perspectives of palliative care .
Helen Joels IRGH Professional Development Lead, opened the day by introducing Vicky Robinson, Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care at Guys and Thomas's who delivered the keynote speech entitled ‘Dying well matters' in place of Professor Ilora Finlay who was unable at the last minute to attend the conference . Vicky spoke from research and her experience in hospital and introduced 2 tools which have recently been developed to enable health care professionals to enable patients to die well – the amber care bundle, sage and thyme communication skills training .
Moving from secondary care to primary care Dr Phil Sawyer, GP and IRGH trustee, developed his theme of generalists and specialists working together and identifying the barriers for multidisciplinary working, then the rewards of complementary roles.
After the coffee break Dr Mary Clarke, consultant haematologist expanded on the differences between the rival ‘tribes' of haematology's and palliative care and explained the difficulties of the transition of haematology ‘cure', including near death rescues, to palliative care . She also clearly defined the biology behind myeloma and lymphoma which gave delegates a better understanding of these conditions.
Liz Pybus and Kim Iliffe, Regional Care Advisors for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, followed Mary Clarke to demonstrate how the voluntary sector can add to the statutory services to meet the rapidly changing needs of MND patients and their families, including providing grants for equipment, and outlined a multidisciplinary course run for MND patients and their carers.
After lunch Lesley Ralston, who cared for her husband as he experienced motor neurone disease, brought us as health care professionals back to a realisation of what is important to carers who are supporting their loved ones through the many difficulties of living with a terminal illness and what are the priorities for them, which are often different from the ‘professionals' preoccupations.
Mr Richard Hulett, the coroner for Buckinghamshire, closed the day with the legal perspective of one who deals with queries after death. He defined commonly used terms such as sudden and unexpected death and explained what is required by law for death certificates to be completed and how deaths due to notifiable diseases must be dealt with.
At the end of this session Vicky Robinson brought the conference to a close reflecting on the need to respect differences and to remember the goal of all our care is the focus on improving care for patients and families dealing with life threatening illness.
Early bird bookings
Next year's conference will once again be held at Green Park Training and Conference Centre, Aston Clinton, on Wednesday 10th October 2012. Early bird bookings secure a discount. Contact Angie Bradley on 01442 890222 or email abradley@irhh.org for details.
