End of life care resources for GPs
End of life care patient charter
The patient charter sets out principles for dealing with patients, carers and families. Potential uses include:
- discussion within the practice team including discussion about training needs
- discussion with care homes
- discussion with patient groups
- as a poster, or for discussion with patients and families on the palliative care register
- as part of a reaccreditation exercise
- as part of Gold Standards Framework training
End of life care patient charter [PDF]
End of life care patient charter: introductory letter to GPs [PDF]
Matters of life and death: helping people to live well until they die [PDF]
Identifying patients: prognostic indicator guidance
Produced with support from RCGP, the prognostic indicator guidance helps early identification of adult patients nearing the end of their life. Once identified, they can be placed on the appropriate register. This can potentially trigger additional support, for example:
- clarifying the patient’s needs
- advance care planning discussions
- preventing crisis admissions
Search the Gold Standards Framework site for ‘prognostic indicator guidance’. Gold Standards Framework for end of life care
Guidelines on end of life care in Wales
We can provide copies of the RCGP Wales palliative adult and paediatric network guidelines 2011 at the subsidised price of £6.00 per copy including postage and packing.
To request copies, email welshc@rcgp.org.uk stating how many you want and giving the delivery and or invoice address.
Commissioning Guidance
A simple guide for the commissioning of End of Life Care, produced b Keri Thomas, RCGP End of Life Clinical Lead for the Clinical Innovation and Research Centre (CIRC) and David Paynton, RCGP National Clinical Lead for the Centre for Commissioning, was launched on 21 March.
This guidance is aimed primarily at GPs and commissioners involved in End of Life Care and helps provide a stepwise guide to tackling this complex aspect of care whilst keeping patients at the heart of services.
End of Life Care Commissioning Guidance
Guidelines on end of life care in Scotland
Guidelines and best practice documentation have been produced that are specific to end of life care in Scotland. An RCGP Scotland policy paper is currently in preparation and is scheduled for publication in Autumn 2013.
Useful links
Useful Links in Scotland