About The Rosemary Foundation   

In March 1997, the Sue Ryder Home, Bordean House, Langrish, Hampshire, a Palliative Care Unit, closed .

The unit had provided for cancer and other patients through continuing care for those at their lives’ end, as well as respite care, symptom control and convalescence, supported by counselling services for patients and their families.  
Following the closure, local general practitioners and staff from Bordean House felt there was a resulting gap in the care offered to terminally ill patients, suffering not necessarily from cancer but from other chronically debilitating illnesses as well.  It was agreed on the need for a continuing palliative care nursing service in the area. 
 
It was to meet this need that The Rosemary Foundation was founded by former Bordean House staff, and the Foundation has since extended the area in which it operates and in which it finds its support, so that it is currently active in a wide area including North, Mid, and South East Hampshire.

How the Rosemary Foundation works

Our service is provided by a team of qualified and experienced specialist nurses, counsellors and care assistants, supported by providers of clerical, financial and administrative services.  To keep indirect costs as low as possible, staff work from their own homes, meeting regularly to discuss individual cases.  The Board of Trustees and the Management Committee (with responsibility for day to day operations) also meet regularly.

Patients who are referred to us are assessed by one of our nurses, who will visit the patient and their family, and also contact other healthcare professionals involved, particularly the GP and District Nurse, to assess the type and degree of care required and how this may best be provided.  A care plan is drawn up with the patient and care arranged, with one named carer appointed to take overall responsibility in each case.

Anyone may refer a patient to us, but normally it is not possible to take on the care of any patient without the agreement of their GP.

Our Mission

•  To provide a full supportive hands-on nursing service for patients suffering from cancer, or other life-threatening conditions, within their own homes.  
  
•  To provide counselling and bereavement support without charge to patients, or their families and to provide them in close consultation with other care professionals, particularly the patient's GP.
•  To provide supportive palliative care to ensure the highest possible quality of remaining life for all patients and their families.
•  To provide such services in accordance with need, irrespective of wealth, gender, ethnic origin, or religious persuasion.
•  To provide services in such a way as to build personal relationships between patients and their carers and to provide every patient with a named carer having overall responsibility for their welfare. 
  “Palliative care” - Palliative Care offers help in the form of control of unpleasant symptoms without seeking to cure.

Our Philosophy

• The Rosemary Foundation acknowledges that every person is of immense value and this requires the utmost courtesy and consideration in all matters.
• Clients and their families in the care of The Rosemary Fondation will receive professional attention that has been thoughtfully planned in consultation with all interested parties to suit their particular needs.
  
• The Rosemary Foundation will support the client, his or her family and carers from the first referral and for as long as is needed.

Chairman’s Letter                                       

Welcome to the spring 2010 newsletter!

October 2009 saw the retirement of Stella Constant as Chair of the Board of Trustees and sadly the resignation of four staff trustees, made necessary due to the updating of The Foundation’s governing document in line with the Charity Commission’s current regulations.

Stella had been Chair since the birth of The Rosemary Foundation in 1997 and we owe an enormous debt of gratitude not only to her, for her skilful leadership, but also to Barbara Pettegree, Julie Cotsell, Leslie Wojciak and Jill Boucher, founder members who will continue to have an important voice in Trustee decision making.

We are pleased to welcome Dr Gillies O’Bryan-Tear as a new trustee. He has many years experience in medical research and the pharmaceutical business. The Board will work to ensure that The Rosemary Foundation maintains its excellent reputation and is well equipped to meet any future challenges. Our thanks go to our patron, the Earl of Bessborough for his keen interest.

Despite the recession and the inclement weather The Foundation continues to flourish thanks to the amazing dedication of the nursing staff, the volunteers and the supporters.

As always we are extremely grateful for donations, not only from the many fundraising events and from covenant holders, but also, and most especially, for the very generous gifts from patients, their relatives and friends. They alone have contributed more than £50,000 to our funds over the past six months.

The Old Stables, Langrish is proving a great success as an office and meeting place for staff and volunteers.  We thank them all for the many hours of hard work in office administration, rewriting registration documents, updating the website and indeed producing this interesting news letter.

Read on and enjoy it!

Dr Patricia Golding, Chair of Trustees

Carer’s Satisfaction Audit

As part of an ongoing process to monitor, update and improve the service we provide, The Rosemary Foundation sent out a questionnaire to a random sample of relatives or carers of patients to whom we had provided care for over a week and whose loved ones had ended their days at home.  Questions were asked about the overall performance of staff and then breaking this down to specific areas of nurse behaviour. Page one ended with room for comments on further training requirements and suggestions for enhancing the “hands on” care.

The second page of the questionnaire asked about the administration of the Foundation; the clarity of information received and contact details together with the reliability of our ‘out of hours’ service. This closed with space for comments/suggestions on how to improve the administration of the Rosemary Foundation.

40 questionnaires where sent out in November 2009.

30 completed forms were returned which gave us a response rate of 75%, 25 of these filled in by a spouse or partner, the rest by a son/daughter. Anonymity was preserved throughout.

Summary of results

The requested information about the staff included:

Were they sensitive to patients needs? Were they reliable? Did staff provide care that was appropriate to patient’s needs?  Were they easy to contact when required?

Results of questionnaire:

88% of the responses gave 10 (being excellent),

10% gave a score of 9,

1.3% scored at 8.

We did receive 1 score of 5 for “how easy was it to contact RF nurse when required”.

The questions about the administration of the service ranged from rating the information received about the foundation, clarity of contact details, who to contact when other organisations were involved (such as community or Macmillan nurse) and reliability of service when contacting RF out of hours.

Again the answers potentially could range from 1 being very poor to 10 which was excellent.

55% gave 10 as a response,

8% gave 9,

14% gave 8,

5.5% gave 7,

2.25% gave 6, and 0.75% gave a response of 4.

Several respondents gave N/A as a response to some of the questions in this section. For example if they had not had cause to contact RF out of hours they gave N/A as their answer.

This section of the form gave us considerable food for thought as some of the respondents’ answers where as low as 4. This was in response to the question about how clear the information was on whom to contact when other organisations were involved such as district or Macmillan nurses.

Conclusion

This has been a very useful process for us. Whilst the majority of respondents were more than satisfied with the nursing staff and the administration of the Rosemary Foundation there was clearly room for improvement. As a direct result of this questionnaire, we have altered the contact information on the inside cover of RF notes left with the patient in their home. Also we have now developed and produced a “Patient and Carers Guide” giving details about RF and the service they can expect to receive. (A copy of this is available on our website). We are always pleased to receive your comments where improvements can be made.

Julie Cotsell