Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic it became apparent that as a city we needed to be guardians to palliative care medicines, to make sure they were being prescribed appropriately ensuring patients in all settings had timely access to end of life medicines whilst at the same time making sure they were not being over prescribed/ stocked in different care settings 'just in case', thus putting pressure on local and national supplies. We wanted to support people at end of life in a care setting of their choice. The Sheffield End of Life medicines group was convened to work collaboratively on this.
The group consists of commissioning and provider organisation medicines management representatives from Sheffield CCG, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and St Luke's Hospice, co-opting members as needed. The group have developed guidelines, pathways and commissioned new services to support timely access to medicines needed for patient's near the End-of-Life (EoL).
The group has been meeting via MS Teams since April and acts as a wider reference group for EoL medicines issues informed by local needs and national policy. Together group members use their collaborative skillset and expertise to drive changes across acute, community and primary care.
