Warren Oxford-Huggett

Mentor & Surveyor

What is the value/experience you have/find in mentoring?
I have been providing mentorship for member organisations for a number of years now. While it can be time consuming and takes me away from my office and the work that I am paid to do, the immense value and privilege of being able to provide this mentorship is overwhelmingly positive.

Working with the Standards for Palliative Healthcare can be intimidating, particularly for members who are new to them or new to organisations that function with policy and procedures in place. The Standards are in place to help ensure that all members provide a minimum level of care that can be measured against these Standards. Working towards this can be daunting. The mentorship that I and the team of APCC mentors provides aims to make this process a little less intimidating. Our objective is to help the member organisations embrace the Standards not as something external and imposed, but as something that is the lifeblood of the Palliative Care that they
provide.

The Standards without the passion are simply external rules. The passion without the Standards is easily misplaced and open to abuse and misuse. The Standards are the veins and arteries through which our passion for palliative care runs and which give us the quality assurance for which we are well known.

What is your experience in surveying?
I have been a COHSASA accredited surveyor for many years and have worked with a number of sites in conducting their COHSASA assessment. As an APCC (Previously HPCA) surveyor, I have worked with many sites (mostly in KZN) to help them prepare for their external assessments by COHSASA.