Nightingale House recognised for its end of life care at award ceremony

End of life care in the Jewish community was praised this week as Nightingale House was named Care Home of the Year.

A care home in south London catering for elderly Jewish residents has been recognised for end of life care.

Nightingale House in Clapham was named Care Home of the Year by the National Gold Standards Framework Centre for End of Life Care (GSF) this week, beating nine other entrants to win the coveted accreditation from a panel of judges.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, GSF helped us achieve the ‘outstanding’ rating from the Care Quality Commission this summer,” said Simon Pedzisi, care director at the 215-bed Nightingale House, where residents’ average age is 92 on admission.

“For us to demonstrate high standards of care means we are demonstrating high standards of end of life care because of the age profile of our residents.”

The home which has been providing care to the Jewish community for more than 175 years and judges praised the “excellent level of dedication to living well until the end of life, and of understanding and compassionate care at the end of life”.

They added: “It offers deeply impressive, systematic, individual and movingly compassionate end of life care for residents.”

During 2018, no Nightingale House residents died in hospital – all residents that died did so in the nursing home, their preferred place.

Pedzisi said staff are encouraged to treat every day as though it could be resident’s last, adding: “From pre-admission we are already thinking about their journey towards the end of life and how we can facilitate the most comfortable journey.”