THREE key Bolton organisations are coming together to launch a new university course that will teach how to care for people at the end of their lives.

The University of Bolton is working with Bolton Hospice and Bolton NHS Foundation Trust to launch the new course in palliative and end-of-life care, which will start in January.

This is the first course of its kind at the university and is also the first time they key institutions have worked together.

Students will learn the skills needed for end-of-life care in a hands on way — with much of the training taking place on-site at Bolton Hospice.

The first students will enrol in January — with both an undergraduate and post-graduate course available.

Dr Barbara Downes, who has worked for 20 years as a medical director at Bolton Hospice as well as working as a consultant in Palliative Medicine, spoke at the launch of the course this week.

She said: “People die and in their final year or so of life they will have ever increasing health and social care needs.

“While the hospital, the hospice and university to some extent have been providing education for a while — we are now celebrating the fact that the three organisations are coming together.”

Sian Russell is one of the lecturers who will be delivering the course to students.

She said: “We don’t like talking about death and dying, but it is actually everybody’s business and we are all affected by it at some point and the way we look after those people in our community is a great reflection of that community.”

Overseeing things will be Jane Howarth, Dean of the School of Health and Human Sciences, who said the ‘Palliative Education Alliance’ represents a “great opportunity.”

She said: “This is a chance to improve the education of care workers and qualified nurses and doctors around end of life and with improved education we can have improved outcomes for the local community.

“We are starting with a programme in January and are now just putting the final touches to the modules of study.”

The course launch was held in the same week that a new study found that the UK has the best end-of-life care in the UK.

Dr Leigh Vallance, chief executive of Bolton Hospice said that the new partnership can build on the success of the hospice movement.

She said: “We come first in the world in palliative care because of the hospice movement — its the partnership between the hospice, the hospital and the local community that makes it special and I think we have a duty to share that further.

“This is all about spreading that knowledge and we have the expertise in the hospice — but it is important that people will be able to come and learn within the hospice environment, we can transmit the very essence of the hospice.”