Staff are rated outstanding in their care and support at Arthur Rank Hospice charity

Arthur Rank Hospice, which support more than 3,600 patients and their families in Cambridgeshire, has been recognised as outstanding.

The charity, which supports people living with a life-limiting illness, has been told by inspectors that the staff are kind, and the support given is invaluable.

Dr Lynn Morgan, chief executive at Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, said: “Over the last few years we have become an independent hospice and we have moved to our lovely new hospice.

“It is a credit to our staff, volunteers and trustees that we have retained the quality of our care and the attention to detail which always puts patients first.

“We would like to thank the local community: their donations made the new hospice possible and they continue to help us fund the vital care we deliver.“

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission visited the hospice twice in December and have praised staff for truly respecting and valuing patients as individuals and empowering them as partners in their care, both practically and emotionally.

One inspector said: “Staff went that extra mile and their care and support exceeded their expectations.”

They said the Hospice had a “proactive approach to understanding the needs and preferences of different groups of people” and how it “actively engaged with different groups that were seldom heard to ensure equitable access to its services.”

Having moved to its purpose-built home in Shelford Bottom in November 2016, CQC recognised how “the design of the inpatient unit and hospice building had been created with the needs of patients and their relatives at the forefront of planning”.

They also noted that “service leaders had the capacity and capability to deliver high-quality, sustainable care”, that “staff described the culture within the service as open and transparent” and that “there was effective multi-disciplinary working across the service”.

An inspector said: “One patient told us the emotional support they had received from the service had been “invaluable” and that they had previously been struggling with the process of dying but the psychologist had set their mind at rest.”

Another relative told inspectors: “How kind the staff were.”

The Arthur Rank Hospice runs a number of services including 23 inpatient beds and a hospice at home night service from 10pm to 7am seven days a week.

It has a specialist palliative community nursing team, that conducts assessments and provides patients with advice in their own homes.

The service also runs day centres from the Arthur Rank Hospice site and a separate site in Wisbech as well as specialist palliative care outpatient clinics. This includes a lymphoedema clinic and complex pain management clinic.