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PALLIATIVE CARE
Crisis Control
As the end of life approaches, the last thing patients need is uncoordinated care that has them repeatedly answering the same basic questions about their condition and plans for their care. Coordinate My Care explains how it can help care professionals provide a coordinated, integrated service that puts the patient’s wishes first.
Nursing home support for patients requiring palliative care has been steadily improving over the past 10 years. There is, however, considerable variation in the range of support available locally and in local funding arrangements. One of the challenges for all patients with life-limiting illnesses and long-term conditions is coordinating the many health and social care professionals who provide their care, while ensuring their wishes remain at the centre of their care.
The 2008 End of Life Care Strategy published by the Department of Health determined that ‘within each local health economy mechanisms need to be established to ensure that each person approaching the end of life receives coordinated care, in accordance with the care plan, across sectors and at all times of day and night’.
In 2010, Coordinate My Care (CMC) was set up to address this growing need to provide integrated care for patients.
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What Does CMC Do? CMC is an NHS service fully integrated across healthcare providers for patients with complex and life- limiting illnesses. The service has been developed to help people express their wishes for how and where they are treated and cared for as they near the end of their life. Most importantly, it ensures that any healthcare professional involved in an individual’s care has access to this information, especially in an emergency situation.
CMC’s aim is to offer patients choice and an improved quality of life. The CMC service is introduced to a patient by a clinician who has a clear understanding of their medical, nursing and social history. Based on this knowledge, the clinician creates a record of the patient’s personalised care plan. The patient is then asked to consent to having the details of this care plan entered into the CMC online system and, subsequently,
shared with their care providers who have legitimate reasons to view this information.
Looking After The Vulnerable People over the age of 75 account for around 30% of emergency hospital admissions. Since they can be the most vulnerable people, this can be very distressing — not only for patients, but also for their families. Access to an up-to-date patient care plan is highly important for this group, as 60% of the week is ‘out of hours’ (OOH) when care of patients with life-limiting illness is provided by urgent and emergency care services e.g. Ambulance Services, OOH GPs and NHS 111.
Often the default reaction is to send these patients to hospital, which heightens patient, nursing home staff and carer anxiety, involves a usually unnecessary admission to A&E, and once admitted these patients sometimes stay longer than necessary and develop new problems. All of this puts significant pressure on the
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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