To support and improve the provision of Palliative and End of Life care for those with heart failure:

Implementing Integrated Cardiac Supportive Palliative Care across Scotland

The Scottish Governments Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care states that everyone who needs palliative care regardless of age, gender, diagnosis, social group or location will have access to it by 2021.

The Heart Failure Palliative Care implementation programme has been designed following on from the “Caring Together Programme” and the National clinical education programme working with health boards, local heart failure, palliative and primary care teams in addition to patients, third sectors and academic partners.

The heart failure palliative care implementation programme promotes a patient centred, specialist heart failure and palliative integrated community approach to service redesign. The focus of the programme will be development and embedding of the “core components of care” which include

1. Early identification

2. Clinical assessment and assessment tools

3.  Care planning and anticipatory care planning

4. Communication & coordination of care including the role of IT

5. Multi Disciplinary Team working

6. Development of functional integrated care teams across primary and secondary care

These core components of care aims to ensure that patients and families preferred care wishes are realistically matched and significantly improved in line with the 2021 vision.

Funded by the British Heart Foundation and the Scottish Government, a dedicated implementation team led by Dr Karen Hogg (Consultant Cardiologist), Yvonne Millerick (Heart Failure Palliative Care Nurse Consultant Lecturer) and Debra Vickers (Cardiology Nurse Consultant) will design, facilitate and deliver a series of discussion and re-design events throughout Scotland . Scotland is undoubtedly leading the way for improving palliative care outcomes in heart failure.

For more information please contact the programme leads:

Karen.hogg@nhs.net or yvonne.millerick@gcu.ac.uk or debra.vickers@nhs.net

Resources

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