Palliative Care Formulary Service

West Yorkshire-wide Palliative Care Formulary Service

Palliative Care SLA – April 2018 to March 2021 (Extended to 31st March 2022 – refer to extension letter below)

Palliative Care Service Extension Letter - to March 2022

Palliative Care - Revised Formulary (& Information for Health Care Professionals)

Resources

Contact Details for Specialist Palliative Care Services

Briefing Note for Pharmacies Providing the Palliative Care Service

PharmOutcomes - Instructions for Use

Bulletins

Important Reminder for Palliative Care Pharmacies - May 2020

Pharmacies commissioned to provide this service stock a locally agreed list of medicines and make a commitment to ensure that the users of the service have prompt access to these medicines, in response to the presentation of an NHS prescription, during the pharmacies' contracted opening hours.

Please note: Other pharmacies will routinely stock many, if not all, of these drugs as part of their usual dispensary stock.

In the event of there being insufficient stock to fill an immediate need the pharmacy will liaise with another community pharmacy in the service with stock and/or other local community pharmacies. The pharmacy will aim to locate a pharmacy with sufficient in-date stock and request that they reserve that stock for collection by the user. If no further stock can be located the pharmacy will contact the prescriber to discuss a suitable alternative.

This service is available within the pharmacies opening hours only (available from NHS Choices www.nhs.uk). Outside these hours requests should be directed to the Out of Hours Service Provider for the relevant area.

This service is commissioned by NHS England & NHS Improvement (NHSE&I). For details about the service contact the NHSE&I Area Team - england.wyat-phes@nhs.net.

Interim Variation Notice (2020) - COVID-19 End Of Life Care Drugs

This variation sets out additional requirements of the community pharmacy palliative care service in response to COVID-19; it should be read in conjunction with the existing service agreement.

Palliative Care Interim Variation - May 2020

Palliative Care Extended Interim Variation - September 2020

Palliative Care Extended Interim Variation – April 2021

Palliative Care Extended Interim Variation – October 2021 to 31st March 2022

Change to Morphine Injection as First Line Opioid Analgesic across Primary and Secondary Care – Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield - 6th April 2020

Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation NHS Trust together with Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust have made the decision to make a change to use morphine injection as the first line opioid analgesic in palliative care across primary and secondary care from Monday 6th April 2020. More information can be found under the area headings below.

Palliative Care - General

The novel “wheel” or “spider diagram” format of this guideline was developed by St Gemma’s Hospice over 15 years ago, to support

the safe conversion between different opioids
enable the safe administration of the same opioid by a different route
to calculate and check the accuracy of “PRN” doses of opioids for patients receiving regular opioids

St Gemma’s clinical team, including Professor Michael Bennett, St Gemma’s Professor of Palliative Medicine, have updated the guideline in line with current company data and seminal specialist palliative care resources.

Although the current (2006) version of the guideline was never formally distributed to non-specialist palliative care providers across Leeds, many have a copy and have found it a useful resource.

The updated 2016 guideline is now approved for use by both specialist and non-specialist palliative care use across Leeds, supported by a project led by the Leeds Palliative Care Managed Clinical Network (MCN).

It is expected that non-specialists will predominantly continue to use the guide as a checking tool. If any discrepancies or queries arise during this checking process the prescriber must be contacted.

Prescribers are responsible for their own decisions. It is imperative to read the notes on the right hand side of the document and seek specialist palliative care advice as needed.

The Leeds Opioid Conversion Guide For Adult Palliative Care Patients 2016 is available as a PDF document on: