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North Devon District Hospital Supportive & Palliative Care Team
North Devon Hospice
(Community Specialist Palliative Care Team, Supportive Care, Bedded Unit, Hospice to Home)
Out-of-hours Specialist Palliative Care advice for professionals
For health professional information and advice on referral please see the North Devon Hospice website
For Palliative Care advice from a Hospiscare doctor:
Advice available 24 hours a day:
Hospiscare Community Clinical Nurse Specialists
8.00am-6.00pm, seven days per week including weekends and bank holidays:
Out of hours advice line for patients, relatives and professionals:
After 8.00pm and before 8.00am, seven days per week:
If hospice ward staff cannot immediately resolve your query, then you will be contacted by an experienced Palliative Care Community CNS or Doctor on call.
For healthcare professional information including advice on referral please see the Hospiscare website
Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital based Specialist Palliative Care nurses:
8.00am-6.00pm, Monday to Friday and 10.00am to 3pm at weekends and bank holidays
Advance Care Planning (ACP) can help the patients and those close to them prepare for the future. It gives an opportunity to think about, talk about and write down preferences and priorities for future care, including how they want to receive care towards the end of life.
The Advanced Care Planning booklet can be downloaded from the One Devon ICB website, along with resources for healthcare workers around treatment escalation plans (TEP).
Some of the drug usages recommended are outside of product licence, either by way of indication, dose or route of administration. However, the approaches described are recognised as reasonable practice within palliative medicine in the UK. If you are concerned about prescribing in such areas, the Specialist Palliative Care Teams are available to provide further information and support.
Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust have written best practice guidelines for symptom management in palliative care which can be accessed here: www.northdevonhealth.nhs.uk/gp/end-of-life-care
This website supports the hard copy version of the “Palliative Care Formulary". Registration for the website is free and provides free access to a syringe driver drug compatibility database, general information and a bulletin board. Paid access is required to use the detailed formulary information.
NICE CG 140: Opioids in palliative care: safe and effective prescribing of strong opioids for pain in palliative care of adults (May 2012)
Details of the Enhanced Service for the Availability of Specialist Medicines, including a list of medications designed to meet the urgent needs of patients and the community pharmacies in Devon providing the service can be found here (see under Guidance Resources).
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