The review provides an overview of activity, costs and quality of both general and specialist palliative care in Scotland, and has highlighted the NHS Borders Out-of-Hours Palliative Care Service as an example of good practice.
In the report, it was noted that the NHS Borders and Scottish Borders Council share a joint budget and single shared assessment for palliative care for patients in the last six months of life. It is recognised that joint working can significantly enhance the quality of care provided.
NHS Borders has a specialist palliative care team based at the Borders General Hospital, working with Macmillan services to provide specialist care within the hospital and community and supporting staff in providing palliative care.
The majority of palliative care is carried out in the community by GPs and community health teams. NHS Borders has worked to develop these services to accommodate, where possible, the wishes of those people who would prefer to end their life in their own home rather than in a hospital.
A keystone of providing palliative care in the community is ensuring patients, carers and staff have access to support and advice in the out of hours period.
The Audit Scotland report highlighted NHS Borders out of hours palliative care service as an example of good practice, attributing part of its success to the fact that it was designed around patient and carer experiences.
The report noted that low rates of admission to hospital in the out of hours period have been demonstrated since the service was introduced and that the service is popular with patients, their carers and professional staff.
Dr Paul Cormie, lead GP for palliative care said: "I welcome the Audit Scotland Report on Palliative Care Services. The Borders Palliative Care Network, which includes representatives from specialist palliative care, primary care, social work and patient representation, is co-ordinating and continually driving forward initiatives to improve palliative care for all patients in NHS Borders.
"One of our current projects is working with colleagues to improve palliative care for patients with life limiting illness other than cancer. I am delighted that our Palliative Care Out Of Hours Service has been mentioned in the Audit Scotland report as an example of good practice."