FIVE nursing and residential care homes in Bury have been recognised for the care they give to residents at the end of their lives.

Bury Hospice and Pennine Care Foundation Trust’s Community Services Bury ran a change management programme in palliative care.

Named The Six Steps to Success for Nursing and Care Homes, the programme enabled dying residents to be cared for in their usual home and reduced unnecessary hospital admissions, saving the NHS thousands of pounds each year.

“End-of-life champions” were appointed at Abbeywood Residential Home, Brookdale Residential Care Home, Elizabeth House, Moorfields Care Home and Rose Court Care Centre.

Over the past 12 months, they have been attending a course run by Karen Davies-Linihan, the hospice’s training and development lead, and Patsy Gibson, end-of-life care facilitator for Community Services Bury.

They learned about palliative care and returned to their care home to implement the training and changes needed.

A special event was held at Radcliffe Civic Suite to celebrate their achievements and certificates were presented by Elaine Horgan, from the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cancer Network. Mrs Davies-Linihan said: “I am really proud of the end-of-life champions and delighted for them to be receiving these awards.

“The homes have worked incredibly hard to implement the changes. So often care homes receive bad press but today we have seen that there are some really good homes out there that are capable of providing high quality care to their residents and families.”