Primary Palliative Care in Ireland Taking Direction from the EAPC toolkit

1. Primary Palliative Care in Ireland -
Taking Direction from EAPC Toolkit
CONCLUSION Ireland has made some progress in responding palliative care needs of
those living in the community, that meet with guidance from the EAPC toolkit.
Further progress is required particularly in the area of implementation frameworks, to
support systematic and co-ordinated delivery of care to patients with palliative care needs.
Authors: M Lynch, IHF; T Duffy, IHF; P Gregan, Blackrock Hospice & GP; Scott Murray, University of Edinburgh; C Hayden, OLH
For more information: marie.lynch@hospicefoundation.ie Feb 2014
The EAPC Toolkit (2013) was developed to guide palliative care services
in primary care in Europe. The recognition that access to palliative
care is a human right underpins this work. The toolkit is based on the
4 domains of WHO public health strategy for palliative care:
Policy, Education, Drug Availability and Implementation
The IHF/ICGP/HSE Primary Palliative Care in Ireland report recommended
improvements in community to support those in their last year of life (2011)
This poster synthesises the key information in the EAPC toolkit and
compares with the Irish Primary Palliative Care initiatives
POLICY The EAPC recognises the Primary Palliative Care in Ireland
report as a means of supporting palliative care in the community
.
DRUG AVAILABILITY
Below summarises how Ireland addresses the 5 EAPC action points :
1. Formulary restrictions – 6 items on essential medicines are not available
2. Regulatory restrictions – no restrictions on opioids prescribed by doctors
3. Emergency prescribing –no legal provision for emergency prescription
4. Special prescription forms - these are required for two types of medications
5. Dispensing – Legally pharmacists cannot make technical changes to prescriptions
EDUCATION The EAPC welcome education efforts reduce barriers
to discuss death dying and bereavement; The ICGP Certificate in
Palliative Care and AIIHPC, HSE, IHF and IAPC Palliative Care
competence framework are examples of how Irish initiatives
IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORKS The EAPC toolkit identified
6 approaches to support palliative care in the community – GSF, SPCIT,
NHS Quick Guide (UK); RADPAC (Netherlands); NECPAL (Spain); Rainone (USA)
 NONE of these are in use in Ireland
WHO public health strategy 2007