To ask the Minister of Health (i) whether his Department has undertaken any review of communication and coordination between acute hospitals, community nursing teams, occupational therapists and social care services in relation to end-of-life care, including any shortcomings that have been identified; and (ii) to detail any actions that are being taken to ensure that patients discharged for palliative care receive all necessary support without avoidable delay.

Effective communication and care coordination between health and social care teams is essential to the delivery of high‑quality palliative and end‑of‑life care.

While Encompass has improved communication and information sharing between hospital and community services, my Department is aware of a number of challenges relating to the recording, visibility and communication of palliative and end-of-life care information across care settings. Some issues relating to the display of resuscitation status information as patients move between care settings have been identified and are being considered as part of ongoing optimisation of the system.

The Encompass system enables clinicians to ‘flag’ patients who have been identified as having palliative and end of life care needs so they can record key information about the patient condition, anticipatory care plans and personal preferences expressed through advance care planning conversations. The recording of these details in Encompass will then alert health and social care professionals in other services and care settings of the palliative phase of the patient’s illness and other key information to support decision making in line with the patient’s care plan and recorded preferences.

My Department is aware there are some utilisation challenges for clinicians which include ensuring appropriate users having the correct permissions to view and record the information and training required at a local level to ensure the relevant users know where to find the information on the system.

The encompass Palliative Care and Advance Care Planning Pathway Council continues to work to consider of how palliative care information including resuscitation status should be managed and communicated as patients move between hospital, community and other care settings.

Through the ongoing optimisation of encompass, the implementation of ReSPECT, and the development of neighbourhood care arrangements, my Department will continue to work with HSC organisations and partners to strengthen communication, coordination and continuity of care for patients approaching the end of life.