New Arrangements for The National End of Life Care Programme and Recent Publications

Abstract

On 1 April 2013, a new improvement body, NHS Improving Quality, was established. It is hosted by the NHS Commissioning Board and brings together the combined knowledge and experience of a number of NHS improvement organisations: As a consequence, the National End of Life Care Programme (NEoLCP) ceased to exist in its current form from 31 March 2013. Some elements of NEoLCP work were due to finish by that time, while others have been transferred to the new organisation. Key end-of-life care (EoLC) priorities will continue to be supported and implemented within the NHS. Both Electronic Palliative Care Co-ordination Systems (EPaCCS) (NEoLCP, 2013a) and Transforming End of Life Care in Acute Hospitals (NEoLCP, 2012) will continue as work programmes, while the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network will continue to operate as part of Public Health England, from April 2013. For enquiries relating to the transition, please visit the ‘about us’ section of the NEoLCP website: http://www.endoflifecare.nhs.uk/about-us.aspx NHS Improving Quality aims to reshape the means by which improvement occurs in health care and support the NHS Outcomes Framework and the NHS Commissioning Board’s five domains (Department of Health, 2012) ( Table 1 ). (The NHS Outcomes Framework sets out the outcomes and corresponding indicators that will be used to monitor improvements in health outcomes.)The NEoLCP team has always been committed to ensuring dissemination of information to clinicians and all its partners and stakeholders. In recent weeks it has launched a number of key reports and publications (discussed below) in order to share data, research findings and …