Palliative Care

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 (pharmacy opening hours are available from the NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/pharmacy/find-a-pharmacy). 

*Note – other pharmacies, (e.g. who are not commissioned to provide the Palliative Care Formulary Service), will also 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, pharmacies that are commissioned to provide the Palliative Care Formulary Service will liaise with another community pharmacy in the service and/or other local community pharmacies to try and find a pharmacy with sufficient in-date stock. If no further stock can be located the pharmacy will contact the prescriber to discuss a suitable alternative.

This service is commissioned across West Yorkshire by the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (WY ICB).  For details or queries about the service please contact the WY ICB.

 

Palliative Care SLA – April 2018 to March 2021 (Extended to 31st March 2024)

Palliative Care Service Extension Letter – to March 2022

Palliative Care Service Extension Letter – to March 2023

Palliative Care – Revised Formulary (& Information for Health Care Professionals) 2023

 

Pharmacies that Provide the Service

A list of pharmacies participating in the scheme is sent out by the WY ICB to key organisations before each Bank Holiday.

Health professionals can also use the NHS Service Finder to locate a community pharmacy who routinely holds palliative and end of life critical medicines. (Note: the search will return both pharmacies who are commissioned to provide the Palliative Care Formulary Service AND pharmacies who have declared under the Pharmacy Quality Scheme that they routinely hold the nationally defined 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines).

NHS Service Finderhttps://digital.nhs.uk/services/nhs-service-finder

Using NHS Service Finder to Locate a Community Pharmacy Palliative Care Medication Stockholder

 

Resources

Contact Details for Specialist Palliative Care Services

Briefing Note for Pharmacies Providing the Palliative Care Service

PharmOutcomes – Instructions for Use

 

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.

 

End of Life Care Daffodil Standards for Community Pharmacy 

Community pharmacies can now sign up to the Daffodil Standards for palliative and end of life care, aimed at improving the care provided to patients approaching the end of their life. The Daffodil Standards are a partnership by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the charity Marie Curie.

Community pharmacies will be able to display the ‘daffodil mark’ as a sign of their commitment to improving the care they provide, as they work through the self-assessment and actions for the eight individual Daffodil Standards. The Standards also align with and complement the Royal College of General Practitioners and Marie Curie Daffodil Standards already used by general practices.

 

Calderdale

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:

 

PLEASE REPLACE ANY PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF THE GUIDELINE WITH THIS 2016 UPDATE

Opioid Wheel

 

 

Last Updated: 24th January 2024