London Journal of Primary Care 2013;5:101
# 2013 Royal College of General Practitioners
Editorial
Interprofessional communication for adults who need multiple agency input Andrew Papanikitas Ethics and Philosophy Editor, London Journal of Primary Care
This month’s issue of LJPC is concerned with communication for the shared care of vulnerable adult patients. Indeed, there have been many strong arguments that shared records are a necessity for good quality end-of-life care, and ‘out-of-hours’ general practitioner (GP) services usually have access to special patient notes (SPNs) for patients whose GP considers them to be at a particular risk outside surgery hours. Shared (often electronic) records can potentially enhance the quality of non-routine care, while at the same time preventing unnecessary, often unwanted, sometimes harmful and always costly hospital admissions. In this issue: .
Victoria Holt et al discuss SPNs, the current standard tool by which UK GPs convey information about vulnerable and complex patients to out-ofhours GP services. Holt provides data from four audits that reveal different insights: frequent callers, patients seen who might benefit from SPNs, the quality of existing SPNs, and GP views about improving the SPN system. The authors conclude that the SPN system is very useful and needs to be actively managed, including prompts from outof-hours to day-time GPs to provide and update them.
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Catherine Millington-Saunders et al give an account of ‘Coordinate My Care’ – a new tool that has been established across London to assist communication for the care of patients receiving end-of-life care. So far, this is showing promise, and needs to be integrated with other communication systems including SPNs. Georgina Jones and David Whitmore emphasise ways in which ‘Coordinate My Care’ is helping London Ambulance staff to address end-of-life care issues. Andrew Papanikitas revisits the public discussion on electronic healthcare records held between the RCGP Ethics Committee, Patient Participation Group and Informatics Group, and finds mismatched discussions and recurring anxieties. In London Landscape, Francesco Carelli reflects on Picasso, human misery and hospice care.
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE
Andrew Papanikitas, Sessional Tutor/Facilitator in Ethics, Interprofessional Education, and Clinical Communication, Kings College London SE1 9NH, UK. Email: [email protected]
# 2013 Royal College of General Practitioners
Editorial
Interprofessional communication for adults who need multiple agency input Andrew Papanikitas Ethics and Philosophy Editor, London Journal of Primary Care
This month’s issue of LJPC is concerned with communication for the shared care of vulnerable adult patients. Indeed, there have been many strong arguments that shared records are a necessity for good quality end-of-life care, and ‘out-of-hours’ general practitioner (GP) services usually have access to special patient notes (SPNs) for patients whose GP considers them to be at a particular risk outside surgery hours. Shared (often electronic) records can potentially enhance the quality of non-routine care, while at the same time preventing unnecessary, often unwanted, sometimes harmful and always costly hospital admissions. In this issue: .
Victoria Holt et al discuss SPNs, the current standard tool by which UK GPs convey information about vulnerable and complex patients to out-ofhours GP services. Holt provides data from four audits that reveal different insights: frequent callers, patients seen who might benefit from SPNs, the quality of existing SPNs, and GP views about improving the SPN system. The authors conclude that the SPN system is very useful and needs to be actively managed, including prompts from outof-hours to day-time GPs to provide and update them.
.
.
.
.
Catherine Millington-Saunders et al give an account of ‘Coordinate My Care’ – a new tool that has been established across London to assist communication for the care of patients receiving end-of-life care. So far, this is showing promise, and needs to be integrated with other communication systems including SPNs. Georgina Jones and David Whitmore emphasise ways in which ‘Coordinate My Care’ is helping London Ambulance staff to address end-of-life care issues. Andrew Papanikitas revisits the public discussion on electronic healthcare records held between the RCGP Ethics Committee, Patient Participation Group and Informatics Group, and finds mismatched discussions and recurring anxieties. In London Landscape, Francesco Carelli reflects on Picasso, human misery and hospice care.
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE
Andrew Papanikitas, Sessional Tutor/Facilitator in Ethics, Interprofessional Education, and Clinical Communication, Kings College London SE1 9NH, UK. Email: [email protected]
