End of Life Care Network

Palliative and End of Life Care Network

The Palliative & End of Life Care Network operates within the Clinical Networks in Cheshire & Merseyside

Cheshire & Merseyside Palliative & End of Life Care Network aims to raise awareness of palliative and end of life care needs enabling people to live and die well in the place of their choice.

This is achieved through partnership working with both commissioners and providers of specialist palliative care, general palliative care and end of life care services, patients and their carer’s.

Integrated Clinical Networks (ICNs) are supported within the Network and they bring together Hospital Community and Hospice providers on a patient flow footprint as a virtual organisation to ensure consistency and promote equity of access in palliative and end of life care service provision. Locality groups for palliative and end of life care link into ICNs as a body of expert advice and opinion to help local strategic direction. The Network promotes consistency in palliative and end of life care on a wider population basis through the Clinical Network Group( CNG) for palliative and end of life care taking direction from regional and national policy.

End of Life Care Service Improvement Programme

The End of Life Care programme managed by the Network is a service improvement programme linked to the National End of Life Care team. The programme objectives are to:

• Ensure better treatment through promoting the use of the North West End of Life Care Model
• Care to be delivered in appropriate settings through advance care planning and the use of the nationally approved EoLC tools in all care settings and disease groups
• Build capability and capacity for health and social care professionals, voluntary and charitable organizations and the general public so death and dying will be a normal part of conversation and care planning
• Develop robust information at Network level to support the commissioning of end of life care services

End of Life Care Facilitators Network

The key aims of the group are:

1. Provide peer support and develop the role of the end of life care facilitator
2. Provide leadership and direction regarding the realising of the end of life care agenda within the national, regional and local context
3. Provide practical suggestions and ideas to problem solve/decision making in the role
4. Evidence through audit the benefits of the role to patients and carers and service development