The College of Paramedics recognises the importance of pre-hospital clinicians being aware of patient decisions and preferences for their care when approaching the end of their life. Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems hold such information, which can be accessed by ambulance services and other health and social care professionals to support the provision of care for palliative patients, according to their wishes.
The national information standard for end of life care co-ordination specifies key information that is required for the provision of high-quality co-ordinated care and provides structures and definitions to support effective and secure recording of this data. The clinical safety of the standard is maintained by a Clinical and Professional Assurance Group, of which the College of Paramedics is a member, alongside numerous professional bodies which include the College of Emergency Medicine, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of GPs.
The College of Paramedics is represented within this group by Georgina Murphy-Jones, a London Ambulance Service NHS Trust paramedic with a special interest in end of life care. The College of Paramedics is pleased to continue its endorsement of the information standard's End of Life Care Co-ordination Record Keeping Guidance. To view the latest version of the information standard, which was published in December 2013, or to learn more, visit: www.endoflifecare-intelligence.org.uk/national_information_standard/