The Hospice UK National Conference is Hospice UK’s flagship event. Held in Liverpool, last year’s theme was ‘Dying for Change: Evolution and Revolution in Palliative Care’ – an intentionally bold idea.
The conference brought together thousands of people who deliver Hospice, palliative, and end of life care for patients of all ages.
At Saint Francis Hospice, the team know that they can’t afford to stand still. The conference encouraged everyone to think about how we can revolutionise their services to meet the ever-changing and complex needs of a growing and ageing population.
Each hospice had the chance to showcase innovative practice to a national audience. Saint Francis Hospice displayed artwork on creative writing in bereavement groups, driving improvement within our Hospice, and the award-winning corneal donation scheme, which reached a milestone of 50 donations from patients in 2019.
The Hospice’s Head of Education, Bridget Moss, chaired a session on how communities support carers. She spoke about how the conference prompted people to share ideas and good practice, as well as challenge current ways of working.
Having spent three days at the conference, Bridget recognised the need for hospices to make young adults’ transition from children’s hospice care to adult services a smoother one. She also addressed the hospice workforce crisis and our desire to recruit professionals to replace those in the twilight of their careers.
Bridget cited one task as a particular highlight: ‘The event organisers asked us what we would do if we had to start again,” she explained. “It encouraged us to think differently and was inspirational.’
Thanks to the UK National Conference, Saint Francis Hospice is determined to come up with even more radical solutions. ‘We can evolve what we already have as well as being revolutionary,’ declared Bridget.
