A suite of palliative care resources to help general practices improve quality of life for patients with life-limiting illnesses has just been released.
These resources, produced by North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network (NWMPHN), comprise information on in-practice visits, education, quality improvement opportunities and revised palliative care treatment pathways.
In-practice visits
NWMPHN partnered with the North and West Metropolitan Region Palliative Care Consortium to offer general practices the opportunity to connect with local community-based palliative care providers.
Practices can request a visit from a community palliative care team member to provide information, education, and support, and help improve understanding and access to community palliative care services.
Apply here and help enhance the palliative care journey for patients in our region.
Education
NWMPHN runs and promotes CPD-approved palliative care training and education throughout the year. Subscribe to Network News or visit our events calendar to stay up to date with upcoming sessions.
Additionally, access on-demand webinars focusing on palliative care, covering essential topics such as:
- Understanding the crucial role GPs play in community palliative care
- Deferred care session 3: Chronic disease management, healthy aging, and palliative care
Quality improvement tools and resources
Our quality improvement activities can help to improve general practice teams’ knowledge of advance care planning conversations and documentation, local palliative care teams, how to identify priority patients for advanced care planning and palliative care, and timely referral procedures.
- Improve your practice team’s knowledge of advance care planning and palliative care
- Increase advance care planning for priority patients
- Increase timely referrals to palliative care
In addition, our comprehensive End-of-Life Care Quality Improvement Workbook for General Practice has more activities and resources for end-of-life care.
New and revised palliative care HealthPathways
General practices can find resources, including clinical guidelines, referral management advice and information on providing palliative care for all patients, including patients in residential aged care homes, and diverse population groups, on HealthPathways Melbourne.
Visit it at melbourne.communityhealthpathways.org or request access here.
The resources are part of the Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care program, funded by the Australian Government and delivered by PHNs across Australia. The program’s goal is to support people who have a known life-limiting condition, by improving choice and quality of care and support in the home.
