Background The Greenwich Care Partnership (GCP) was born out of the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme (DCP). Three service providers were asked to develop the service, the Hospice acts as the prime contractor and sub-contracts others to deliver specific elements of the service.

Aim The service aims to increase the number of people who die in their place of choice by ensuring that appropriate health and personal care services are available and that their families have sufficient support.

Approach used The service operates alongside core services to support high quality care across four areas:

• Care co-ordination

• Rapid Response Service

• Personal care and support

• Night care

Although the elements of service are provided by different providers, they work together to ensure care is seamless 24/7.

Outcomes The GCP was commissioned as a “test and learn project”; now in it’s 3^rd year, the service has developed in response to local need and resources have been flexibly allocated to provide responsive, high quality care.

Each provider has signed up to the success of the project and each has an equal stake in ensuring that the service meets its key performance indicators.

The project has succeeded in supporting an increase in home and hospice deaths and a reduction in hospital admissions, length of stay and deaths.

Application to hospice practice The model and contracting arrangements have attracted National interest amongst Hospices and commissioners, and has been cited as a model of good practice for others to build on.

Thinking strategically about the role of hospices

The GCP model is a natural extension of the Hospice service, producing efficiencies and quality improvements. With the current proposed model for palliative care funding, Hospices will need to take on the role as prime contractors in order to survive.