AN Ilkley GP practice has won a prestigious national award for improvements made to the care they provide those nearing the end of their lives.

Ilkley Moor Medical Practice has been awarded the Quality Hallmark Award by the National Gold Standards Framework Centre (GSF). The accolade was presented at the GSF conference in London on September 25 by Dr Catherine Millington-Sanders, Royal College of General Practitioners End Of Life Care Champion.

The GSF programme has helped the practice identify more easily patients approaching the last year of life. This means that since completing the training, Ilkley Moor has been able provide better planned care for more of its patients.

The practice now has 270 patients who are benefitting from being known as 'gold patients'. They have had the chance to discuss their wishes and preference and have access what is known as the Gold Line, a dedicated service for people in the last year of life, designed to ensure people continue to be cared for at home, avoid crisis hospital admissions and have a named GP caring for them.

Dr Helena Rolfe, of Ilkley Moor Medical Practice, said: "As a family doctor, whose job it is to see people through to the end, it is much more satisfying to care for your patients in a calm, planned way.

“We have reduced by 50 per cent hospital admissions for this patient group, and with the help of GSF, are providing better, cheaper care for our patients and their carers."

The gold patients’ wishes are also shared with the out of hours service and the local hospital. Together, this helps provide continuity for patients and their families.

Saltaire Medical Practice in Saltaire also received the prestigious award on Friday.

Professor Keri Thomas, clinical director of the National GSF Centre, said: “Saltaire and Ilkley Moor have demonstrated a real passion for providing quality care for their patients, who are approaching the end of their lives.

"Most importantly, they are helping these patients live their final months in the place and manner of their choosing, through better planning, communication and co-ordination.

“With responsibility for the co-ordination of care of vulnerable adults now falling to named GPs, GSF provides the tools, framework and structural change to help family doctors provide ‘gold standard’ care for people nearing the end of life.”

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