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565 Foxhall Road
Ipswich,
Suffolk
IP3 8LX
T: (01473) 727776
F: (01473) 274717
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The East Suffolk End of Life Care Facilitator post is based at St Elizabeth Hospice. This post is part of the National End of Life Care initiative which aims to promote Gold Standard Palliative Care for patients in any care environment regardless of the patient's diagnosis.

The End of Life Care programme promotes three possible models of care which can be used jointly.

The three frameworks are:

• The Gold Standards Framework (GSF) is a systematic approach to optimising the care for any patients in the final year of life in the community. Originally for primary care teams, it is widely used across the UK and now extends to care homes, in-reach to hospitals, children and other emerging areas to enable provision of best end of life care.

The framework embodies three processes:
- identifying patients nearing the end of life
- assessing their care needs and preferences
- developing a proactive plan of care

• The Preferred Priorities for Care (PPC) is a document that the patient holds for themselves and takes with them if they receive care in different places. It has space for the patient's thoughts about their care and the choices they would like to make, including where they want to be when they die. If anything changes this can be written in the plan so that it remains up to date.
• The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP) was developed to take the best of hospice care into other settings including care homes and hospital. It is used to care for patients in the last days and hours of life once it is known that they are dying. The LCP involves promoting good communication with the patient and family, anticipatory planning including psycho-social and spiritual needs, symptom control (pain, agitation and respiratory tract secretions) and care after death. The LCP has accompanying symptom control guidelines and information leaflets for relatives

The LCP Framework is a continuous quality improvement framework for care of the dying, irrespective of diagnosis or place of death, and can be used in a variety of care settings; it motivates and empowers the generic workforce in caring for their patients and families.

The frameworks are being introduced to Healthcare Professionals within Suffolk via a series of educational events, supported by the Strategic Health Authority and visits to GP surgeries, the hospitals and nursing homes across Suffolk PCT. The Liverpool Care Pathway is currently being implemented in Ipswich Hospital, Aldeburgh Community Hospital and the Hospice in-patient unit plus Primary Health Care settings.

For more information contact Annette Villis on 01473 717823 or email annette.villis@stelizabethhospice.org.uk.

To find out more about the Gold Standards Framework or the Liverpool Care Pathway go to: http://www.goldstandardsframework.nhs.uk or http://www.mcpcil.org.uk