From helping people to make informed choices about their care to supporting best practice in care quality, our team of experts can help you support a patient with a life limiting illness.
Contact our Clinical team on stch.admin@nhs.net or call 01293 447333 with any questions. Alternatively, download some of the useful standards, clinical guidelines, and patient information leaflets for drugs commonly used in palliative care outside their licensed use, below.
Anticipatory prescribing for community palliative care
This guidance is intended to support GPs and non specialists in prescribing injectable medication for symptom control in the last days of life as part of an individualised care plan. It includes an opioid conversion table and a sample community prescription chart for PRN medication as an example of best prescribing practice. This will assist with the completion of local prescription charts on a person by person basis.
Patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 may have significant symptoms and distress. Symptom control guidance for Covid-19 gives suggested medication for common symptoms based on national guidelines and local clinical experience, including options for non-injectable medication.
We recognise that some carers and professionals may not be familiar with how to administer medication via the subcutaneous route. The following guidance is a step by step guide to giving subcutaneous injection and setting up a subcutaneous infusion via syringe driver.
Symptom control and prescribing guidance
- NHS Scotland – Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines
- Information about your medicines for symptom management
- Prescriptions for Palliative Oxygen
Palliative medicine resources
Here you can download supplementary patient information leaflets for drugs commonly used in palliative care outside their licensed use. These leaflets must be provided in addition to the licensed patient information leaflet, as this is a legal requirement. These leaflets describe the purpose and uses of the drug within end of life care and answer some frequently asked questions.
For medical support or advice for treating a person living with a terminal or life-limiting illness, please contact our Triage team on 01293 447333. For more information on how to refer a patient to St Catherine’s, please visit our referral page.
Click on the below links to download the relevant leaflet.
Alfentanil
Amitriptyline
Atropine
Cyclizine
Dexamethasone
Oral and Subcutaneous Dexamethasone Conversion
Fentanyl Patches
Haloperidol
Hyoscine Butylbromide
Levomepromazine
Lidocaine Patches
Lorazepam
Methadone
Metoclopramide
Midazolam for subcutaneous injection
Morphine
Octreotide
Pilocarpine drops
Morphine and other Opioid Painkillers
Your Medicines and Driving
Supplementary Steroid Information
Decisions about Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
National guidelines and key documents on end of life care
- Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People One Chance to Get it Right (2014)
- NICE (National Institute for Health and Care: Excellence in End of life care for adults 2011)
- NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence: Care of Dying Adults in the Last Days of Life NG31 2015)
- National Palliative and End of Life Care Partnership Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care: A national framework for local action 2015-2020 (2015)
Gold Standards Framework
The Gold Standards Framework offers training and guidance to help you provide outstanding care to patients facing the end of their life. And if you’re planning to set up a Gold Standard Framework at your practice in Surrey or Sussex, our St Catherine’s nursing and medical teams can help.
End of Life Care Strategy
Published in 2008, the End of Life Care Strategy provides a framework for health and social care services and sets out recommendations based on feedback from clinicians and palliative care experts.
