Dr Peter Nightingale presents the best tweets from HSJ and Marie Curie Cancer Care’s Twitter chat on the role of partnership working in end of life care

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On 14 February, @HSJnews hosted a Twitter chat with @MarieCurieEOLC and me, the Royal College of GPs and Marie Curie national clinical lead for end of life care. We discussed the importance of partnership working in end of life care. I was joined by Dr Adam Firth, RCGP’s clinical support fellow for end of life care.

Among the recurring themes of the conversation was the need for commissioners to take a strong lead on identifying and facilitating partnership working, as well as the need for service providers to trust each other and communicate more effectively.

Many of those who participated in the chat had good examples of partnership working, which was great to see. We also discussed the importance of engaging patients and working with the third sector to identify and support their needs. It was great to be able to signpost people to some key data and resources.

My pick of the tweets

 

 

 

 

You can also read a Storify summary of the choice bits of the conversation.

Here are my recommended, must-read resources for commissioners keen to develop or enhance their end of life care services:

10 Priorities for Commissioners

This is a great starting point for commissioning – although designed originally for England the principles are valid throughout the UK

Royal College of GPs commissioning guidance on end of life care

A useful aid for commissioners from the RCGP in supporting better care for people at the end of life.

Royal College of GPs and Marie Curie Cancer Care partnership

Information on the partnership for which I am national end of life lead with videos and slides from our roundtable events.

NHS Improving Quality end of life care commissioning toolkit

Another useful resource for commissioners.

Social Care Institute for Excellence

This comprehensive guide is to ensure people at the end of life are able to die at home and improving the quality of care they receive.

Dr Peter Nightingale is national clinical lead for end of life care for the Royal College of GPs and Marie Curie