End of life care is everyone’s business and we all have a responsibility to support our patients and their families through this vulnerable time. When a patient is at the end of their life, we have one chance to get it right.
We utilise the SWAN End of Life and Bereavement Care Model. The SWAN Model enables us to provide individualised, compassionate end-of-life care during the last hours to days of life, and bereavement care for those close to the dying person. For more information on SWAN see the additional information section.
View the Medics guide for Care of the Dying Patient here. The Medics guide for Care of the Dying Patient is not intended to replace clinical judgement. This guide is written by Dr Bellieu, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, as is useful as a resource to support decision making when a patient is recognised to be entering the dying phase of life.
The 2022-25 Strategy for end of life and bereavement care was developed in response to a wide ranging consultation with staff, patients and their carers. The strategy demonstrates our commitment to improving patient experience across the trust and sets out how we will achieve the specific components required in order to deliver high quality, individualised, patient-centred end of life care.
Our key commitments are:
- Patient experience: Ensure patients and those important to them are engaged and involved in the development and delivery of the highest quality end of life and bereavement services across the Trust.
- Service integration: Develop integrated services alongside our partner organisations to support seamless, co-ordinated care across all settings.
- Transitions of care: Develop guidance and resources to support complex decision making and safe transitions of care for patients approaching the end of their life.
- Workforce training: Develop a competent and confident workforce to deliver safe and high quality individualised palliative and end of life care.
- Research and development: Develop a research culture within the service to support active participation in clinical research to develop the evidence base for palliative and end of life care.
- End of life outcomes: Ensure there are clear, measurable outcomes to demonstrate ongoing quality improvement in end of life and bereavement care.
