In partnership with Leeds University, this will give hospice staff access to the most up to date education in palliative care. Further undergraduate and Master’s level teaching will be carried out, and significant palliative care research projects will be planned.
In terms of care, as patients’ needs change over time, the hospice will be in a position to quickly adapt as a result.
The hospice’s new status will be formally launched in September 2017, however its partnership with the university goes back more than 20 years, when it began providing university teaching and training in the form of a postgraduate healthcare course. The hospice continues to work with around 200 medical students per year to develop their skills in this area.
In 2011 the hospice appointed Professor Mike Bennett as St Gemma’s professor of palliative medicine. He leads the Academic Unit of Palliative Care based at the University’s Leeds Institute of Health Sciences and at St Gemma’s Hospice.
Commenting on working together, he said:
“We have a long-standing relationship with the University of Leeds and our new status as University Teaching Hospice formally acknowledges the quality of research and teaching our Academic Unit of Palliative Care carries out. It reinforces St Gemma’s position at the forefront of palliative care internationally and will act as the UK benchmark for integrated clinical and academic palliative care.”
“Ultimately it means the people we look after will be treated in the best way possible and, as patients’ needs change over time, we will always be in a position to adapt because of the new research which will be carried out.”
Kerry Jackson, Chief Executive of St Gemma’s said:
“Patients and families already receive outstanding care, as judged by the Care Quality Commission. The new relationship we have created with the University of Leeds, means we can take that further, and embed research-based training and teaching into all our operations.”
In its most recent assessment, the Care Quality Commission gave St Gemma’s an ‘outstanding’ rating, specifically highlighting Professor Bennett’s academic unit, as a factor in improving patient care.
For more information visit St Gemma’s Hospice
Leave a Reply