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GP online services toolkit

Clinical exemplars

2: End of life care



This guidance is for GPs and practice nurses caring for patients approaching the end of life irrespective of underlying condition or co-morbidities. The aim is to describe how access to GP online services contributes to person-centred care in this context and to present the case for recommending online record access to patients and their families and carers at the end of life.

It describes how you can help them make use of online access to information about their healthcare to improve their ability to self-manage their condition and help to co-ordinate their care. It describes how carers or relatives can use Patient Online on behalf of patients without capacity. It explains how patients can share access with supporting family members, carers and the multidisciplinary healthcare team to help them look after the patient safely and confidently.

The GP coded record is shared to support direct care in many parts of the country through electronic palliative care co-ordination systems (EPaCCS) or through direct views of the GP record. Patients do not have access to these systems but Patient Online enables them to see whether the data about them in these records is complete and up-to-date.

RCGP resources



Supporting information