Quality care at patients’ homes with new Myton Hospice service

* Last year, 75 per cent of people in Warwickshire who were asked said they would prefer to die at home.

Only 22 per cent of people in county were able to do this.

The Myton Hospices are doing something to change that by giving its patients a choice of where they would prefer to die.

The Myton at Home Leamington and Warwick service launched on Monday October 7 with the charity’s experienced nursing team heading out into the community to care for patients at their own homes.

Sister Helen Siddaway, who is leading the new team, said: “I’m very excited that we can take the Myton care out into the community of Leamington and Warwick.

“We will be working alongside the Warwick Myton Inpatient Unit to support patients who want to be cared for in their own homes with their families and friends around them.

“The service, along with the district nurse service, will enable patients to go home to their families as quickly as possible, ensuring they are well supported.”

The service will cost £150,000 a year to run and will rely on voluntary income.

Its launch follows on from the success of its Rugby counterpart, which started in 2011 and cared for 105 patients in and around the town last year.

“Because the Rugby service has been so successful and we have had a lot of positive feedback from the families and patients who had received the service we felt that the time is right for us to start the service in Leamington and Warwick,” said the hospice’s director of nursing and care services Margot Emery.

“We’ve been planning it for a while but we felt that now was the time to be moving forward with it.

It’s only day one of the service but we’ve already had some referrals and we anticipate the numbers will build up quite quickly.”

Myton at Home will not only allow the hospice to help more people but it will help it make better use of its inpatient beds .

Working with other agencies such as the Macmillan Nurses and the district nursing team, the six-strong Myton nursing team will also provide vital support for patients’ families and loved ones.

“It extends our care out into the community,” said staff nurse Teresa Richards.

“And the people who receive our care at the hospice get the reassurance that they will receive the same level of care at home.”

The Myton Hospices, in Warwick, Coventry and Rugby, care for more than 1,200 patients and their families every year.

The charity needs to raise £7.5 million each year to keep its services running and relies on the support of fundraisers and the community.

For more information about Myton at Home call 492518 or visit the hospice’s website www.mytonhospice.org