Palliative and end of life care

The HPAL provides quick, reliable clinical advice on palliative and end-of-life care for GPs and primary care teams in North West London. It is designed to support safe, evidence-based decision-making when caring for patients with complex needs.

Why it matters for GPs

• Offers expert support – Immediate access to specialist advice for complex clinical queries.
• Improves prescribing confidence – Guidance on medicines management and local policies.
• Enhances patient care – Helps ensure treatment aligns with best practice and patient needs.
• Reduces uncertainty – Provides clarity in challenging situations, especially at end of life.

HPAL helps GPs deliver compassionate, high-quality care for patients approaching the end of life across North West London.

Please also direct your patients to the public webpages.

The Universal Care Plan provides a single, secure digital record of patients’ urgent care preferences and clinical information. For GPs, it is an essential tool for ensuring joined-up, person-centred care across all settings.

Why it matters for GPs

• Improves care coordination – Ensures all professionals have access to the same up-to-date plan.
• Supports urgent and end-of-life care – Makes patient wishes clear in emergencies and during palliative care.
• Reduces duplication and delays – Streamlines communication between primary, community, and hospital teams.
• Enhances patient trust – Demonstrates commitment to respecting preferences and delivering consistent care.

The Universal Care Plan helps GPs provide safe, timely, and integrated care for patients across north west London.

Future care planning helps GPs ensure that patients’ wishes and preferences are clearly documented and respected, especially when they may lose the ability to make decisions themselves.

Why it matters for GPs

• Improves continuity of care – Shared plans reduce uncertainty and ensure all clinicians follow the same approach.
• Supports informed decision-making – Helps you guide patients and families through sensitive conversations about treatment options.
• Reduces crisis interventions – Clear plans prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and enable timely, appropriate care.
• Enhances patient trust – Demonstrates a proactive, compassionate approach to end-of-life and long-term care.

Future care planning is a practical tool for delivering safe, coordinated, and person-centered care across north west London.

Advance care planning ensures that patients’ wishes for future treatment and care are clearly documented and respected. For GPs, this is a vital tool for delivering compassionate, person-centered care.

Why it matters for GPs:

• Facilitates sensitive conversations – Provides structure and resources for discussing future care with patients and families.
• Improves care coordination – Ensures all professionals involved have access to the same agreed plan.
• Reduces emergency decision-making – Helps avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and interventions during crises.
• Strengthens patient trust – Demonstrates commitment to respecting patient preferences and dignity.

Advance care planning supports GPs in making informed, timely decisions and delivering high-quality care for patients approaching the end of life.

The North West London Palliative Care Directory of Services provides GPs and primary care teams in north west London with up-to-date information on local specialist palliative care services. With borough specific information, it is an essential tool for ensuring patients and families receive the right support at the right time.

Why it matters for GPs:

• Streamlines referrals – Includes the All Age Pan-London Specialist Palliative Care Referral Form for efficient access to services.
• Improves care coordination – Connects you with local specialist teams for advice and support.
• Supports best practice – Ensures patients receive timely, appropriate palliative and end-of-life care.
• Enhances patient and family experience – Helps provide compassionate, joined-up care across North West London.

The directory supports GPs in delivering high-quality, person-centred palliative care for patients with complex needs.

The EARLY search and toolkit is designed to help GPs and primary care teams in North West London identify patients who may benefit from a personalised care and support plan, particularly those approaching the last phase of life. This nationally developed resource supports timely, person-centred care planning and ensures wishes are documented on the Universal Care Plan (UCP).

Why it matters for GPs:

• Enables early identification – Flags patients who may need a personalised care and support planning discussion.
• Supports advance care planning – Facilitates meaningful conversations and records preferences on local systems.
• Streamlines documentation – Integrates with the Universal Care Plan and local Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems (EPaCCS).
• Improves care coordination – Ensures all professionals have access to up-to-date, consistent care plans.

The EARLY toolkit is accessible in both EMIS (Optum) and SystmOne, with clear alerts and templates to guide your workflow. It is suitable for all primary care staff involved in care planning, helping you deliver proactive, high-quality care for patients with complex needs across North West London.

This directory provides GPs and primary care teams in North West London with up-to-date contact details and opening hours for community pharmacies supplying anticipatory palliative care medicines, both in and out of hours. It is an essential tool for ensuring timely access to medications and support for patients with urgent palliative care needs.

Why it matters for GPs:

• Facilitates rapid access – Find local pharmacies commissioned to provide anticipatory medicines, including out-of-hours support.
• Improves care coordination – Enables seamless collaboration between GPs, pharmacies, hospices, care homes, and community teams.
• Supports urgent patient needs – Ensures patients and families receive essential medications without delay, day or night.
• Streamlines urgent referrals – Clear guidance on using NHS 111 and specialist pharmacy rotas for out-of-hours supply.

Use this directory to help deliver safe, responsive, and compassionate palliative care for patients across North West London.

The North West London EoL Dashboard provides up-to-date population insight to support proactive, person‑centred care for patients at the end of life. It brings together cohort identification, mortality trends, and borough‑level benchmarking to inform clinical practice and service planning.

Access the dashboard here

Tip: Hover over the “i” button (top right) to open the User Guide and codes used. The guide explains use cases and definitions for all calculations.

Why it matters for GPs

• Focuses on your registered population – EoL pages report on patients 18+ registered with NWL GP practices as of the selected date; Mortality pages include all ages registered to NWL practices.
• Supports proactive identification – The NWL EoL Cohort combines patients on the primary care palliative care register with those flagged by the EARLY SNOMED-based search, helping you find patients who may have palliative and end of life care needs.
• Provides clear population context – As of 8 Oct 2025, 49,296 patients were identified in the NWL EoL Cohort (1.99% of the 18+ population); Ealing currently has the highest proportion (2.65%).
• Highlights care setting trends – In 2024–25 (Apr–Oct), 52.2% of deaths occurred in hospital, higher than the England and London percentages reported for 2022—useful for targeting improvement work (e.g., care planning, community support).
• Helps target local improvement – Borough‑level views enable PCNs and practices to benchmark, track change over time, and focus interventions where they will have the most impact.

Data note: The Community Contact rates on the “EoL Register and UCP Activity” tab are temporarily unavailable while data is validated.

Use the dashboard to guide earlier identification, plan care aligned with patient preferences, and drive coordinated improvements across North West London.