She said: “I left Wellington, New Zealand, on 18 June, a day earlier than expected to avoid what turned out to be the worst storm in 40 years. After a journey totalling 24 hours and two long flights, I arrived in London, where I would be attending the St Christopher’s ‘Hospice as a Hub’ course and visiting other hospice services. After nearly 25 years away, it felt great to be back.
I organised the trip because I wanted to see what was happening in the UK with palliative care services now and into the future. “
As well as attending the course at St Christopher’s, Jane visited hospice services throughout the UK, including:
- Richard House Children’s Hospice
- Rennie Grove Hospice, St Alban’s
- St Catherine’s, Crawley
- St Joseph’s, Hackney
- St Nicholas Hospice Care, Bury St Edmunds, and
- Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice, Abbey Wood.
Jane commented on the challenges shared between hospices in the UK and New Zealand, saying: “New Zealand faces many of the same current challenges as the UK: A growing older population, increased demand for palliative care services, a reduced workforce and a more complex palliative care population that requires improved service access and utilisation.” She also noted that, as New Zealand was in the beginning stages of developing a hub and spoke model for palliative care, a key aim of her visit would be to see how this approach was being implemented in the UK.
Read the full blog post on the Dying Matters website.
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