- SPPC Achievements 2024-25
- Annual Conference 2025: From System Holes to Whole System
- Call for Posters
- Assisted Dying Bill - Perspectives Informed by Palliative Care
- SPPC’s response to the public consultation on the SG Strategy for Palliative Care
Sharing Current Scottish Practice
This blog provides an opportunity for people to share examples of current Scottish palliative care practice that might be of interest to the palliative care community more widely. If you know of work underway that might be relevant for sharing on our website, please get in touch.
Macmillan Pharmacy Service
In 2009,
Macmillan Cancer Support funded a project within NHS Greater Glasgow &
Clyde (GG&C), which piloted the establishment of four Macmillan
Pharmacist Facilitators, the first of their kind in Britain.
With the aim of improving pharmaceutical palliative care services from the community, the facilitators spearheaded a quality improvement programme which engaged community pharmacies and the wider multi-disciplinary primary care team (MDT).
Four GG&C Community Health & Care Partnerships (CH(C)Ps) participated in the project and key outcomes included:
- Compilation and delivery of a palliative care resource folder to all community pharmacies across GG&C
- Delivery of palliative care training sessions for pharmacy support staff
- Improved networking amongst community pharmacies
- Improved communication between community pharmacy and the wider multi-disciplinary team
- Design and distribution of patient information leaflets
- Design and distribution of prescribing tools for GPs
The University of Strathclyde evaluated the project and conceptualized an evidence-based service delivery and capacity planning model. The model is aligned with Scotland’s palliative care national action plan Living and Dying Well and has, in part, been embedded within GG&C’s community pharmacy palliative care network service level agreement.
Following its success, Macmillan and GG&C have agreed to jointly fund the transition of the Macmillan Pharmacy Service from project phase to board-wide roll out. An exciting new development sees the establishment of five pharmacy technician facilitator posts. It is anticipated that the skill mix of pharmacists and technicians will maximize the capacity of the service to improve pharmaceutical palliative care to those with life-limiting conditions
Key Service Objectives:
- Increase awareness of palliative care service provided by network pharmacies and facilitate timely access out of hours to palliative care medication
- Improve provision/co-ordination of palliative care services through improved support of both network and non-network pharmacies
- Deliver support staff palliative care training to all community pharmacies within GG&C
- Extend training programme to GP practice managers and receptionists
- Promote cost-effective/appropriate prescribing and dispensing of palliative medicines
- Incorporate palliative care needs assessments and anticipatory care planning into the chronic medication service
- Develop information resources to enable patients and carers to access their medication, and palliative care advice, from their community pharmacy
- Strengthen communication strategies within pharmacy and across sectors; investigate the feasibility of sharing information on GP palliative care register
Facilitators are locally based within CH(C)Ps therefore are in a unique position within the primary care team to inform and support the delivery of palliative care services. This “on the ground” approach is designed to facilitate the sharing of good practice between community pharmacies and the wider MDT and aid the identification and resolution of problems.
For more information about the service or to talk to a local facilitator please contact:
Service Lead: Kate McCusker
Administrator: Charanpreet Sran
Telephone: 01505 706542 (Mon-Friday, 8am-4pm)
Widening Access at the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice
The Culturally Sensitive Project was established at the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice to address the discrepancy between the numbers of people from ethnic minorities requesting help from the hospice compared to numbers of people in the hospice's catchment area from an ethnic minority.
The Culturally Sensitive Project aimed to change this by engaging more with ethnic minority communities to raise awareness of the services the Hospice can offer. The project has three main strands of work: raising awareness, education initiatives and improvements to existing services.
Raising awareness has included:
- monthly drop-in clinics at a range of religious venues and key GP surgeries
- a health fayre at Glasgow Central Mosque, attended by over 200 people
- presentations to community groups and in local Mosques and Gudwaras
These activities have helped to break down barriers to accessing hospice care and to inform people about the services and help the Hospice can offer. Training has also been provided for hospice staff and volunteers, local hospitals and other external organisations.
Changes were also made to services within the Hospice, for example the Hospice now has facilities for Ablution and prayer, culturally sensitive advice is available for staff, and all patient leaflets are available in Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi.
The Culturally Sensitive Project takes into account the needs of specific communities whilst raising awareness of the Hospice’s services. Most information and events have focused on the South Asian community to date but more recently work has begun to find ways to get information and assistance out to asylum seeker and refugee communities.
The project team has helped to significantly increase the number of referrals where a patient’s recorded ethnicity came under the wider South Asian category. This has enabled the Hospice to help and support individual families many of whom first learned about the services available at one of the drop-in clinics in the community. Without the clinics these families would not have received any support.
Finally, due to the Culturally Sensitive Project’s work the Hospice has seen an increase in the number of volunteers from different ethnic groups and this is helping to foster even stronger relationships with all the communities of South Glasgow.
Barbara Love and Majabeen Ali are key to the success of the project, with organisations now spontaneously requesting for Barbara and Majabeen to attend their events.
Barbara Love, Culturally Sensitive Project Lead and Clinical Nurse Specialist at The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice has led the project from its inception. Her determination to make sure that everyone in Glasgow will have the same opportunity to get help from the Hospice means that she has become a very well-respected figure among local Asian communities.
Majabeen’s Ali, Cultural Liaison officer, has advised and guided the project on South Asian cultural issues and norms. A fluid Urdu and Punjabi speaker, Majabeen has been integral to the hospice's liaison with Glasgow’s South Asian Communities, and to the success of the Hospice’s awareness raising presentations and events. A well known figure in the South Asian community, Majabeen has helped to break down cultural barriers.
For more information about the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice's Culturally Sensitive Project please contact Barbara Love or Majabeen Ali.
Raising awareness of palliative care
Staff from the NHS Tayside Palliative Care Service have been busy over the summer working in the local community to raise awareness of palliative care services.
Staff set up a stall and provided information at various community events throughout Dundee, including Celebration in the Park, Lochee Festival of Life, and the Fintry Gala. The stall provided information on:
- Specialist palliative care and what services are provided locally
- Here 4U, the community volunteer support project
- Good Life, Good Grief, Good Grief
People were encouraged to write their hopes, dreams and aspirations on a Before I Die wall. The wall helped staff to initiate conversations, and encouraged people to stop and find out more. There were 114 contributions made to the wall over the three events.
Staff had conversations with 80 people about: palliative care services; thinking and planning ahead; and volunteering. People also picked up information and invitations to the Macmillan coffee morning to be held on the 28th September.
The event helped to bring information about palliative care services and available support to many people who were previously not aware of the service or the support that is available.
For more information about these events, please contact Elaine Colville.
Evaluation of ACP in Ayrshire
The University of the West of Scotland have produced an evaluation report of a project by NHS Ayrshire & Arran looking to evaluate use of advance and anticipatory care planning in North Ayrshire.
Focusing on patients with palliative care needs, a demonstration site was established in North Ayrshire in November 2010 to engage with local staff and promote the use of the ACP process. This was to be achieved principally through the provision of education and the development of documentation.
The overall aim of the demonstration site was to reduce avoidable admissions to hospital by April 2013. The evaluation report is available here: weblink
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