News

Major new conference announced

In April, the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief are hosting a major national conference to showcase and explore current thinking and practice relating to public health palliative care in Scotland.

Palliative Care sector raises concerns over Brexit

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care has written to David Davis, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, raising concerns over the impact that withdrawal from the EU may have on the care of the dying in Scotland.

The open letter, signed on behalf of the Partnership’s governing council, calls on Mr Davis to recognise the part that EU health and social care staff play in end of life care in Scotland, and to pay due attention to sustaining staff numbers. There is little capacity to absorb any detrimental impacts of Brexit, the letter states.

The letter points to research that reveals Brexit could have a disruptive impact on care of the dying in Scotland:

• Uncertainty over Brexit has already reduced the numbers of EU nurses registering to practice in the UK (Nursing and Midwifery Council)
• 4% of nurses and midwives in NHS Scotland are non-British EU nationals, as are 1400 doctors (Scottish Government)
• 6% of the care home workforce are non-British EU nationals. (Scottish Care)

It also expresses concern over the future of EU research funding and cross-border collaboration into the improvement of end of life care. Clinical medicine and biosciences research received well over £200 million in EU research funding in 2014/15.

The Westminster Government is also urged to ensure that any new arrangements between the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the European Medicines Agency do not result in delayed patient access to new drugs.

“The importance of good end of life care cannot be overstated,” says Mark Hazelwood, Chief Executive of the Scottish Partnership of Palliative Care, “It is central to a caring and compassionate society. Any negative impact on staff or funding caused by exiting the European Union will bring great difficulties to a sector that already faces significant challenges, and could cause unnecessary suffering to people who are at their most vulnerable.”

Update: the SPPC has received a response from Jackie Doyle Price MP.

NOTES TO EDITORS

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care brings together over 50 organisations involved in providing palliative and end of life care in Scotland. Membership of the Partnership spans organisations employing health and social care professionals in hospitals, social care services, primary care, hospices and other charities. The Partnership exists to improve people’s experiences of declining health, death, dying and bereavement.

The full text of the letter can be found here: Open letter to Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union

To Absent Friends Festival

Preparations are well underway for this year’s To Absent Friends, a people’s festival of storytelling and remembrance.

This is set to be the biggest year yet, and festival listings can be viewed on the To Absent Friends website. We’re adding to the list every day, so please get in touch if you would like to get involved. If you're looking for inspiration, some ideas are suggested here: Get Involved.

Food, storytelling and music in memory of absent friends

Join us for an evening of spoken word, storytelling and music in memory of absent friends, with entertainment from:

• Cat Loud, Cabaret Singer
• Donald Smith, Storyteller and Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre
• Max Scratchmann, Spoken Word Artist

A simple three-course meal will be provided by the Cyrenians Community Cook club. Invite some people you'd like to spend the evening with, book a table, and raise a toast to Absent Friends. Tickets are £6. More information and booking is available here: To Absent Friends Supper

Do you work with people who enjoy sharing their memories of times gone by?

This October we are working with Scottish Care and the Luminate Festival of Creative Ageing on an initiative which aims to uncover lost tales of relationships in the 1940s and 50s. We want to find out about the adults that made the decade special - the parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, teachers, neighbours and friends that left a lasting impression on young people living in post-war Scotland.

Throughout October, we'll be inviting people to take part in a Scotland-wide reminiscence project called Absent Friends from the 40s & 50s. We'll be collecting stories and anecdotes and creating an online collage of remembrance which celebrates and commemorates some of the 'ordinary' people made these decades special. If you’re interested in taking part, please get in touch or check out the website for more information.

Storytelling Workshop

SPPC is pleased to be working with the Scottish International Storytelling Festival to put on a workshop exploring storytelling and remembrance. With contributions from Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, the workshop will provide an opportunity to explore Absent Friends Suppers as a means of reviving storytelling and remembrance in the Scottish tradition. Monday 30 October 2017, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh. £8

Response on Innovation and Technology in the NHS

The SPPC has submitted a response to the Scottish Parliament Health & Sport Committee's call for views on Innovation and Technology in the NHS.

Within the response we highlight that there are key opportunities for the use of technology in health and social care to:

a) Improve how technology supports Anticipatory Care Planning (ACP)

b) Improve integration and communication between the statutory, independent and voluntary sectors

c) Support more useful feedback on quality of care and outcomes.

Our response suggests that ICT systems should be developed which expand on the functions of the Key Information Summary (KIS) and have the following characteristics:

• ACPs can be easily and frequently updated to reflect the ongoing and evolving conversations which underpin good anticipatory care planning.
• ACPs can be updated (in real time) by relevant people from different settings which span primary care, secondary, tertiary, social care and potentially education (to enable the appropriate support of children and young people).
• ACPs are accessible to third sector providers such as hospices and independent sector providers such as care homes.
• ACPs are accessible in different settings and by different devices.
• People using services (and their informal carers where appropriate permission has been granted) are able to access their own ACP.
• ACPs are sufficiently flexible in format to support individual preference (both of the patient/client and professionals).
• The system is framed by information governance rules which support secondary use of data for service improvement, planning and research.