Our end-of-life care coordination project is focused on ensuring that end-of-life care plans can be created and shared via the Health and Care Information Exchange so that frontline clinicians can access the most up to date patient information that will enable them to make the best decisions about a patient’s care.

Many NHS organisations can be involved in supporting patients who have an end-of-life care plan. This can include GPs, hospitals, NHS 111, the ambulance service and hospices. Ensuring all authorised NHS organisations can access a patient’s up to date end-of-life care plan will help ensure that patients can get the care they need and want.  Linking in with national and regional objectives for end-of-life care, the project aims to help improve the experiences of patients and support people dying in their preferred place of death.

By autumn 2017 the team will have delivered a pilot which will allow clinicians to view end-of-life care plans in real time in their own systems, in existing local information exchanges or by using the London Health and Care Information Exchange viewer.

In early 2018 the project aims to pilot the updating and sharing of end-of-life care plans within GP systems. The future vision is that not only all authorised health and care professionals, but also patients will be able to create, view and update end-of-life care plans.

The London Health and Care Information Exchange aims to join up care providers across London to ensure clinicians have secure access to up to date patient information and records so they can make the best decisions about a patient’s care. Information will only be shared if a patient has given their consent and we want to see each patient having access to an online account where they can view their information and decide which organisations can share it.