The End of Life Care Project is a national programme that has been established to help health care professionals throughout England improve end of life care for their patients, regardless of their disease. Their aim is to improve the quality of care at the end of life for all patients and enable more patients to live and die in the place of their choice. The programme is committed to partnership working and our role as a clinical network provides the platform in developing services that are integral to the National Service Framework. Our aim is to integrate end of life care practice through implementation of Advanced Care Planning/Directives for heart failure and coronary heart disease. We will be working closely with all organisations across the sector to develop and implement an 'End of Life' care programme with the following anticipated outcomes: Greater choice for patients in their place of care and place of death Decrease in the number of emergency admissions for patients who have expressed a wish to die at home Decrease in the number of patients transferred from a care home to a district general hospital in the last week of life Generalists skilled in the use of the models of care tools to improve end of life care. For more information contact: Temo Donovan, Senior Project Manager: tdonovan@nhs.net Debra O'Hanlon, Palliative Care Nurse Specialist: DO'Hanlon@trinityhospice.org.uk Darrel Francis, End of Life Consultant Lead: d.francis@imperial.ac.uk

National Priority Project - Heart Failure and supportive and palliative care Developing an end of life heart failure pathway within a culturally diverse community The aim of this project was to develop an end of life (EoL) care pathway in Brent for end-stage heart failure patients. Working in partnership to provide patient choice and accessible end of life care service provision in hospital and community settings and taking into account the cultural and social diversity within the borough. This project has helped to inform Brent's EoL strategy. Report Appendices

End of life care in heart failure - A framework for implementation

This joint publication with the End of Life Care Team, highlights how an end of life care service can best accommodate the specific needs of heart failure patients.

The framework takes each step of the end of life pathway and suggests the heart failure specific care that a patient and their carers need and how it can be delivered in the community, in a hospice environment or in secondary care, allowing the patient and carer real choice in their preferred priority of care and so avoiding unnecessary and unwanted hospital admissions.

 The framework:

• highlights specific needs in symptom control, device care and the professional skills and training needed to provide that care;
• uses case studies and examples to illustrate how different commissioning models, and service delivery methods can improve quality, safety and productivity to deliver better care for heart failure patients;
• explores the economic case for providing an improved end of life service for heart failure patients.

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	National Heart Failure Audit 2008/09
	Directory of Services & Resources - This Directory was developed to provide an informative reference guide of heart failure services and resources across North West London, and will be of use to health care professionals, patients and carers. If you want to make any changes please email kathryn.wickham@nhs.net
	Symptom Control Guidelines - The above guidance has been put together to provide a more coordinated approach between cardiology services, care of the elderly, community heart failure nurses and specialist palliative care services.
	Generic Palliation Pathway for End-Stage Heart Failure patients
	Documentation to support assessment of 'end of life' needs
	Documentation to support assessment of 'Preferred Place of Care'
	ICD Deactivation Document
	ICD Deactivation Referral Form
	Heart Failure Patient End of Life Baseline Assessment Evaluation Report - One Year On. Following on from the baseline assessment undertaken in 2006, this report outlines the findings of EoL services for heart failure patients one year on.
	Evaluation of ICD Deactivation Study Day 2008. To support the Network's ongoing EoL project, a workshop was set up to provide delegates with current clinical information on the deactivation of ICD's across all care settings. It was hoped to raise awareness of the issues assocaited with ICD deactivation and provide an opportunity for attendees to ask the experts.