Agenda item

Report of the Director of Adults

The Board considered a briefing note of the Director of Adults regarding Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System which was developing a 5-year Coventry and Warwickshire All Age Palliative and End of Life Care (PEoLC) Strategy 2023 – 2028.  The Strategy would be owned by the following organisations:

·  Coventry City Council (CCC)

·  NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (CWICB)

·  Warwickshire County Council (WCC)

The Strategy development was based on the National Ambitions for Palliative and End of life Care.  The 6 National ambitions were:

·  Each person is seen as an individual

·  Each person gets fair access to care

·  Maximising comfort and wellbeing

·  Care is co-ordinated

·  All staff are prepared to care

·  Each community is prepared to help

The delivery of the PEoLC Strategy would support the ICS partnership organisations to ensure PEoLC was prioritised and equitable across the system.

A brief for the proposed Strategy was presented to Coventry and Warwickshire Commissioning Group in June 2022 and agreement had been secured from WCC and CCC to partner the strategy. 

Four priorities had been identified for the Palliative and End of Life Care for Coventry and Warwickshire:

1.  Information – focus on identification of people in the last 12 months of life, early intervention, and support.

2.  Access – to timely palliative and end of life care, with support throughout.

3.  Supporting people – diagnosed with a life limiting condition and those who matter to them, carers, and community to prevent crisis.

4.  Improving the quality of personalised care and support planning for people with palliative care needs, including planning for the end of life.

Members of the Board, having considered the content of the briefing note and presentation, asked questions and received information from officers on the following matters:

·  Information on the Happy, Healthy Lives website

·  Access to end of life information to be available widely on both social media, in libraries and GP surgeries

·  Funding mechanisms and level of resource available to implement the Strategy

·  End of life services being mapped to identify gaps

·  End of life care being delivered through primary care

·  The Action Plan identifying and raising awareness of services available to residents in Coventry and Warwickshire and how they could work collaboratively with the voluntary and community sector within the funding means to service the needs of the population

·  All patients being identified as individuals

·  Patients dying without being identified as being in their last year of life - some end of life services not being accessed

·  Respect forms informing service providers of patients wishes

·  Medical, psychological, emotional and spiritual support being available to both patients and their families

·  Collaborative working between doctors, hospitals, families and patients being vital to the strategy

·  Pharmacies ensuring they have the correct medicines in stock when required

·  The Strategy engagement period during June/July 2023

·  Social Prescribers in Primary Care being a vital link

·  An end of life register which would communicate with every organisation

Members welcomed the Strategy, thanked officers for their work and suggested the following comments in contribution to the Strategy:

·  Review the appropriateness of the information on palliative care on the ‘Healthy Lives’ website.

·  Update information available on palliative care for patients and their families, online and in other forms.

·  Review communication with patients and their families, professionals and communities.

·  Seek clarity on the funding mechanisms and level of resource available to implement the Strategy.

·  Consider digital denial alongside digital inequality.

·  Enhance opportunities to share records across the system to reduce duplication for patients and professionals.

RESOLVED that the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5):

1.  Support further engagement of the draft Strategy in 2023 and review the final version later in 2023.

2.  Receive the final version of the Strategy.