Call waits for palliative patients at primary care service, Holderness Health, used to average 40 minutes.

Families often had to repeat their story to multiple professionals, and only 29% of patients who died had been on the palliative care register.

To improve services, the practice set up a ‘gold team’ service, which included a dedicated phone line, proactive GP and general practice assistant contact, better coding to identify patients earlier, and a ‘gold pack’ of information and support for patients and carers.

Social prescribing support was added for practical issues like housing and finances, alongside help with advance care planning and faster medication access through the in-house dispensary.

Call waits have fallen to under a minute. Patients on the palliative register have risen from 29% to 43%.

Carers, staff and partner organisations including the Dove House Hospice have strongly supported the new approach described the work as “award worthy” and other practices in the region are looking to adopt aspects of the approach, including the dedicated phone line and the “gold pack”

The model built on existing roles, relatively low cost and scalable across the wider system.

Winner of the Quality Improvement award at the NHS Excellence Awards 2026.