- Page navigation anchor for Electronic palliative care coordination systemsElectronic palliative care coordination systemsI would agree with Reyes and Martins' comments regarding the implementation of electronic palliative care coordination systems in England and the need for information to flow easily among NHS organisations. This was highlighted in my comment about the concerns which have been expressed regarding the implementation, sustainability, cost-effectiveness, equality and service capacity of these systems.Competing Interests: None declared.
- Page navigation anchor for Sharing ACP from general practiceSharing ACP from general practice
The editorial on advance care planning1 while to the point on the need in general practice to promote patients making those plans, it fails short on the most relevant issue: How the information is shared from primary care to secondary care and ambulance services. Considerable progress has been made since the initial pilots in UK in 2009-2011,2 one of them in Leeds, where it has been rolled out fully and where we are looking into possible solutions to the interoperability effect and the limiting access of the information been shared, but also going beyond looking into embedded reports to support practices implementing it.2
The editorial mentioned the CMC in England (covering 9 million people,2 although not clear on their leaflet for GPs whether systmOne practices are covered3 but fails to discuss the fact EPaCCS takes over 82 forms and there are still no clear answers to what is functional EPaCCS, how much is shared, etc.4
At the end of the day, if the information does not flow easily among the NHS organisations there is little point on UK citizens on managing early their end of life preferences and their ACPs, and they will remain far behind on their use when compared to the popularity in the USA,5 and the question of how long will take for national programs, like Summary Care Records, to take into consideration these developments, so any UK citizen, no matter where in the co...
Competing Interests: None declared.