On the 1^st March 2023 a new process and documentation will be used across Suffolk and North East Essex to discuss and record future plans for emergency care including cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment (ReSPECT) begins with a conversation between a person, the people who are important to them, and their health care team. This includes developing a shared understanding of their condition and their priorities for future care and from this a discussion and recommendation for future treatment options.

This conversation and the resulting recommendations are then documented on a ReSPECT form which can help guide clinicians who need to make decisions in any future healthcare crises.

The ReSPECT form will gradually replace the current ‘Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation’ forms across Suffolk and North East Essex. It is already widely used across the country and has enabled much more holistic discussions on preferences and priorities for future care.

You can watch a ReSPECT training webinar from Dr Karen Chumbley, here

The ReSPECT form can be viewed here

More information on the ReSPECT process can be found on the resuscitation council website : https://www.resus.org.uk/respect

Here is the latest issue of Dr Karen Chumbley’s North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance End of Life Working Group Newsletter: https://sway.office.com/6jb69AtmBFZBywjp?ref=Link 

Here is the latest issue of Dr Karen Chumbley’s North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance End of Life Working Group Newsletter: https://sway.office.com/ZcP7KpRwBJ93cvua?ref=Link&loc=mysways 

Here is the latest issue of Dr Karen Chumbley’s North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance End of Life Working Group Newsletter: https://sway.office.com/BKQLRdtukmksXxur?ref=Link&loc=mysways

Here is the latest issue of Dr Karen Chumbley’s North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance End of Life Working Group Newsletter: https://sway.office.com/rA9xRRDupcwzkB77?ref=Link

Age Well East has been chosen to provide Bereavement Support Services the people of Colchester and Tendring.

The Colchester-based charity previously known as Age Concern Colchester has been providing support for people aged 60+ who are experiencing grief and loss for many years.

Now, with extra funding from Essex County Council, the former charity aimed at helping people aged 60+ has expanded its service to provide in-person support groups to anyone aged over the age of 18. The regular groups will be led by trained and compassionate staff and will take place in a safe and accessible environment. The groups are thought to start initially in Colchester, Harwich, Clacton, Jaywick and Stanway during October and will aim to stop people from experiencing grief and bereavement alone.

Thomas Bell, Operations Manager for Bereavement and End of Life at Age Well East said; ‘It can be overwhelming when someone close to us dies. Grief and bereavement can affect people in different ways, but we know that talking to someone who has training or experience in grief, can help. We are delighted to now be able to offer these new support groups to people living in Colchester and Tendering and we urge people to register their interest with us so that we can support everyone who needs it’.

The service, which aims to stop people from feeling alone at times of grief or bereavement and also supports people who are facing the end of their life alone. This end-of-life support is called Compassionate Companions, it aims to provide comfort and support to people who are in their last months of life, helping them to live with dignity and comfort, right to the very end.

To register your or to find out more about the Bereavement support or Compassionate Companions, please contact Age Well East on 0300 37 33 333 or find more details about the service on their website www.agewelleast.org.uk.

The ‘Special Rules’ allow people nearing the end of life to:

• get faster, easier access to some benefits
• get higher payments for some benefits
• avoid a medical assessment

Clinicians, such as a GP, hospital consultant, hospice doctor or registered nurse, can be asked to provide medical evidence (currently a DS1500) for a benefit claim under the ‘Special Rules’ process.

The rules are currently called the ‘Special Rules for Terminal Illness’ (SRTI) and apply to people who have 6 months or less to live.

These are changing to the ‘Special Rules for End of Life’ (SREL), which apply to people who have 12 months or less to live.

Due to parliamentary constraints, DWP can only change the rules for 2 out of 5 benefits from April 2022.

This means that from 4 April 2022 there will be:

• 2 sets of ‘Special Rules’ criteria to consider
• a new medical evidence form, the SR1, which will operate alongside the DS1500 form

This is a transitional period until the new rules are extended to all 5 benefits. When this occurs, the DS1500 form will be withdrawn and the SR1 form will remain as the medical evidence form that can be provided to support a ‘Special Rules’ claim.

Read more at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-factual-medical-reports-guidance-for-healthcare-professionals/the-special-rules-how-the-benefit-system-supports-people-nearing-the-end-of-life

Read May's newsletter - NEE Alliance End of Life Care Board Newsletter July 2022

A Compassionate Harwich network is beginning to establish and you can read more about how Harwich is becoming compassionate and how you can get involved by reading this newsletter - Compassionate Harwich Newsletter May 2022

A Compassionate Clacton network is beginning to establish and you can read more about how Clacton is becoming compassionate and how you can get involved by reading this newsletter - Compassionate Clacton Newsletter May 2022

Read May's newsletter - NEE Alliance End of Life Care Board Newsletter May 2022

Read April's newsletter - NEE Alliance End of Life Care Board Newsletter April 2022

Read March's newsletter - NEE Alliance End of Life Care Board Newsletter March 2022

Read February's newsletter - NEE Alliance End of Life Care Board Newsletter February 2022

Read January's newsletter: NEE Alliance End of Life Care Board Newsletter January 2022

Read December's newsletter: End of Life Newsletter December 2021

As you may be aware, St Helena has forged a new learning and development relationship – 'hospice education' – with Ipswich’s St Elizabeth Hospice. Hospice education will be launched in January and will provide an extensive range of palliative and end of life education, training, learning and development sessions.

In the interim, Alison Blaken, a consultant at St Elizabeth, is to facilitate an on-line masterclass on MND on December 15 from 6pm to 7.30pm. If you are interested in attending just click here to reserve your space or alternatively email education@stelizabethhospice.org.uk and the team will be able to help you.

In the future, as part of the hospice education programme, the community of practice will be adapted to offer sessions broken down into a 45-minute masterclass followed by a 45-minute case study discussion option, supported by the medical teams at both hospices. Delegates will have the choice to attend the masterclass or case study session or both.

The first three masterclass/community of practice sessions for 2022 are ‘Bloods – What to Look For’, ‘Red Flags, Spinal Cord Compressions and Acceptance’ and ‘Commitment Therapy’. These sessions have been chosen as a result of feedback received from sessions in 2021.

If you have any suggestions for topics in the future please feel free to share this when completing the feedback survey after attending any of the sessions, or contact the email address above.

The end of life anticipatory prescribing authorisation is now available via Ardens.

It can be found on the NEE Community and Provider tab under the medication authorisation link. Use the ‘choose template’ option, then the option for the ‘North East Essex Community Drug Chart EoL’ will become visible.

This allows the authorisation form to be stored in the patient’s communications and letter as ‘Community Drug Chart’ which makes it easy to find for clinical colleagues who may need access to this chart to administer the medications.

The North East Essex End of Life dashboard shows that the access to the My Care Choices register in the last year of life is above 50%. People who died having recorded their preferences for future care have a less than 20% chance of dying in hospital. Thankyou to all those who take time to listen and record the preferences and priorities of people towards the end of their lives. It is making a clear difference to their experience of care.

The North East Essex End of Life (NEE EoL) Board have supported a proposal to fund a clinical lead for End of Life Care in Each PCN. If you have an interest in End of Life Care and would like to consider such a role please contact your PCN Clinical Director and email me at kchumbley@sthelena.org.uk

Details of these roles are included in this document. 

The quality of DNACPR decisions is under review as a result of the CQC report on this https://www.cqc.org.uk/publications/themed-work/protect-respect-connect-decisions-about-living-dying-well-during-covid-19

The enhanced health in care homes weekly review is a good opportunity to review any DNACPR forms that have come out of hospital and can be used to confirm that this was discussed with the person and their family.

The Suffolk and North East Essex (SNEE) ICS End of Life board has agreed to the phasing out of the DNACPR forms later this year and replacing it with the ReSPECT process and a programme of information and education around this change is to be launched in the autumn of 2021.

The next EoL community of practice event will be on the 15^th July at 1pm and will contain a short presentation of the SNEE bereavement survey results and information about other resources available to support your patients in the last year of life. Invitations will be circulated closer to the time.

Clinicians supporting care homes for people with learning disabilities may be interested in the next PCPLD Network webinar on the 13^th July on involving people with intellectual disabilities in end-of-life decisions. Details can be found here : https://www.pcpld.org/home/webinars-and-podcasts/

For any new clinicians in North East Essex involved in End of Life Care there is a short video created by the hospice on Dealing with Dying that explains how local services work together and how to support a person approaching the end of life. Watch this video 

From Tuesday 1 June 2021, the new Bereaved by Suicide Service will commence for Suffolk and North East Essex (Colchester and Tendring). The new service is being provided by Victim Support, who have extensive experience in this area and a strong reputation for supporting people through traumatic experience.

This is an all-age service to support all residents in Suffolk (with the exception of the Waveney area of Suffolk) and Colchester and Tendring in North East Essex. Trained staff will be equipped to signpost to support for Waveney residents and those who live outside of North East Essex.

The service is free and confidential, providing timely emotional support, practical help and signposting in a timeframe that suits each individual. The service can also support historic cases as well as more recent incidents.

Local liaison workers will be trained and will be in post over the coming weeks to support people as they need it. The service will work on a self-referral and third-party referral basis.

To contact the service, please email bbs.support@victimsupport.org.uk Victim Support’s national Supportline service is available 24/7 on 08 08 16 89 111.

Primary Care Communication April 2021

End of Life newsletter - May 2023