Derriford Hospital End of Life Hub

Welcome to the Derriford Hospital End of Life Hub. This is an information point displaying end of life and palliative care resources specifically for healthcare professionals at Derriford Hospital. End of life services at Derriford Hospital are run by Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and championed by St Luke’s Hospice Plymouth.

Please see the categories below detailing the eight foundations of care for resources, downloads and links to other services.

For further end of life and palliative care resources and information for professionals in health and social care, visit our Healthcare Professionals page in our Information Hub.

Symptom management advice

Medical advice

Opioid conversion chart

Prescribing opioids with renal impairment advice

Diabetic guidelines for palliative patients

Use of naloxone in palliative care advice

Guidance on withdrawal of assisted ventilation for patients with MND

Driving with painkillers advice leaflet for patients

Starting opioids patient advice leaflet – Wales

South and West Devon formulary

Palliative formulary

App

Advice for patients

Driving with painkillers advice leaflet for patients

Starting opioids patient advice leaflet – Wales

Recognising dying / managing last days of life

Last days of life

Nutrition and hydration at the end of life

NICE guidance

GMC guidance

TEP and DNACPR

Tep form version 11 and guidance

Trust resuscitation policy

CPR and TEP booklet for patients

GMC resuscitation guidance

Decisions relating to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from BMA

‘Talk CPR’ Training video

Discharging patients home

Just in case prescribing proforma

Rapid discharge process

St Luke’s community and crisis team referral

EPaCCS (Electronic palliative care coordination system)

EPaCCS

EPaCCS application form

EPaCCS guidance

Recognising poor prognosis

SPICT (supportive and palliative care indicator tools)

Poor prognosis letter
SPICT supportive and palliative care – April 2017
SPICT supportive and palliative care GUIDE – April 2017

Derriford ‘poor prognosis letter’

Advance Care Planning

Advance Care Plans

Advance care planning advice

What is advance care planning?

GMC guidance ACP

ACP documents

Thinking ahead

Planning for your future

ACP a guide for health and social care staff

Use the following links to access our Easy Read documents for Future Care Plans, Support Staff Guidance and Feedback Form.

Advance decision to refuse treatment

Advance decision to refuse treatment form

Advance decision to refuse treatment advice

Lasting power of attorney

Lasting power of attorney information

End of Life communication skills

SPACE Matters

In a hospital environment, a sensitive approach to necessary but difficult conversations with patients’ families is key. In Derriford Hospital space is very tight and a creative solution has been sought to provide staff there with guidance to enhance communication at these times.

To help with this, the hospital called on the expertise of Dr Sioned Evans, Consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke’s, who worked with colleagues to develop the SPACE initiative. Based on established good practice in communication, the plan is to role it out across the hospital to help staff prepare and plan for sensitive conversations.

“We chose the acronym SPACE because space is both the problem and the solution,” said Sioned.

“Our end goal is to have this as an established set of guidelines in the hospital, and for staff there to have the key information on credit card-sized reminders in their ID holders, on posters and on computer screen savers. We also hope to create a video clip for Derriford’s website.”

For more information please call St Luke’s hospital team (Level 8) on 01752 436744.

SPIKES communication model

SPIKES