Palliative & Supportive Care Board
Dr Adrian Tookman, Co-chair, Palliative and Supportive Care Network
The Palliative and Supportive Care Network continues to meet on a regular basis and is well attended. 2006/07 has been a successful year and the Network has continued to represent the views of all palliative care stakeholders of all disciplines and from all settings. The appointment of a Palliative Care Network manager has been a positive move for the Network and enhanced all its activities. The Network meets every six weeks. There are six palliative care steering group meetings at which all major specialist palliative care services are represented. In addition there are four open meetings that any professional involved in palliative care can attend. The open meeting has regular reports from its subgroups: medical, nursing, out of hours, IT, LCP, voluntary sector, palliative care education and steering group. The supportive care group also reports to the open meeting from its subgroups: communication skills, AHPs, Cancer Partnership Group, complementary therapies, information and psychosocial.
The Palliative and Supportive Care Network regularly reviews its compliance with IOG guidelines. The biggest challenge continues to be the provision of 24 hour access to out of hours care in the community and in acute Trusts throughout the Network. A ‘hub’ mechanism using the two voluntary sector hospices for out-of-hours community care has been agreed and there are regular meetings with commissioners to discuss funding of this service.
The Network has progressed well with Peer Review action plans. It regularly reviews its remedial action plans and has completed its key milestone targets by the estimated dates of completion. One area that may be difficult to complete is development of IT since there are resource issues.
External Links:
The National Cancer Rehabilitation Website - The website brings together the components of all the national work the team is doing in cancer and palliative care rehabilitation
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