The Evening Times this week reports the launch of a £3.6 million pilot project to improve end of life care for heart failure patients in hospitals, hospices, care homes and at home in Scotland.

The ‘Caring Together’ project is a collaborative effort between the British Heart Foundation Scotland, Marie Curie Cancer Care and the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Over the next five years, the programme will seek to enhance quality and access to care for local heart failure patients with palliative care needs, as well as giving patients choice in their place of care by improving coordination of care among healthcare providers.

Initially the programme will be implemented in North-East Glasgow, Inverclyde and South-West Glasgow, and later rolled out across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.  If successful, the project may be used as a backbone for improved end of life care services for heart patients across the rest of the United Kingdom.

Read the full article published in the Evening Times (4 March, 2011)