We are proud to be working in partnership with West Midlands Ambulance Service to support their paramedics to enhance their knowledge and skills when caring for people approaching the end of life.

In March and April 2025, 10 paramedics from across the West Midlands spent a week at our Warwick and Coventry Myton Hospice sites. Taking time away from their demanding clinical roles, they joined Myton’s QELCA® Facilitators to reflect on the care provided towards the end of life for people accessing ambulance services.

The paramedics worked alongside senior doctors and nurses within our Inpatient Units, Myton at Home service, The Shakespeare Hospice or Mary Ann Evans Hospice. These experiences are designed to deepen their understanding of palliative and end of life care across different settings while working alongside professionals who are skilled and experienced in providing palliative and end of life care.

Over the next six months, the Myton QELCA® Facilitators will continue supporting the paramedics as they develop and implement quality improvement projects in palliative and end of life care within their own clinical teams across the West Midlands.

Dr Sarah MacLaran, Consultant in Palliative Medicine and Medical Education Lead at The Myton Hospices, said:

At The Myton Hospices, we believe everyone should have access to compassionate, high-quality palliative and end of life care. We are delighted to be working in partnership with West Midlands Ambulance Service, The Shakespeare Hospice and Mary Ann Evans Hospice to deliver this vital training for our clinical colleagues.

By working collaboratively with our community, we hope to equip healthcare professionals to enhance their skills and further develop their knowledge to provide high quality personalised care towards the end of life.

Jason Wiles, WMAS Consultant Paramedic for Emergency Care, said:

We are proud to be part of this collaboration with The Myton Hospices, The Shakespeare Hospice, and Mary Ann Evans Hospice. All of our Paramedics are committed to delivering the compassionate and high-quality care patients deserve when approaching the end of life and the opportunity to deepen our paramedics' knowledge and skills in palliative and end of life care is invaluable.

Hannah McKelvie, Clinical Operations and Quality Lead at The Shakespeare Hospice, said:

We are proud to be part of this important collaboration, which gives paramedics the opportunity to see first-hand how holistic and compassionate care can make such a difference to patients and their families. By sharing our expertise, we can help equip paramedics with the skills and confidence needed to deliver outstanding end of life care, wherever and whenever it is needed.

The QELCA® programme was designed by St Christopher’s Hospice to enable and empower teams of health and social care practitioners from acute, community, care home settings and the ambulance service to lead on the delivery of high-quality care to patients and families at the end of life.

The Myton Hospices is a QELCA® satellite training unit and has been delivering QELCA® training programmes for local hospital and community healthcare professionals since 2018.

Find out more about the QELCA® programme HERE!