Today (Thursday 10 October), patients across the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commisioning Group (BNSSG CCG) and Gloucestershire CCG areas will begin conversations with their clinicians and health care professionals to identify their own care and treatment preferences. It is likely that these discussions and decisions will be recorded using a new purple coloured form called ReSPECT (Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment), which can be used by clinicians to make decisions for the care of that patient in the event of an emergency.
ReSPECT is a process that encourages conversations around a patient’s health care preferences much earlier than is currently happening. It enables patients to have more say and influence on the health treatment and care they would prefer to receive in the event of an emergency. It is about creating a personalised recommendation for someone’s clinical care in situations where they are not able to make decisions or express their wishes.
The process is that trained staff guide selected patients through an extended conversation, often taking place over several contacts to allow families and carers to be involved. The process results in a completed ReSPECT form that details the person’s wishes for their care, along with appropriate clinical recommendations. The ReSPECT form is then held in hard copy form by the patient, and should be made available for paramedics and clinicians to access in the event of an emergency. A ReSPECT form may also include a decision on resuscitation, which may record the patients’ preference for or against resuscitation or CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation).
The West Of England AHSN has been working to support the spread and implementation of the ReSPECT process. From 10 October patients may be discharged from the two acute care settings in BNSSG (University Hospitals Bristol and North Bristol Trust) with a ReSPECT form where it is appropriate; and patients will also begin to have conversations with their GPs on the ReSPECT process and complete forms in GP practices.
More information on ReSPECT and how to adopt and implement within organisations and services can be found on our website here, where you can also read our latest report from the ReSPECT autumn event.
In order to measure the adoption of ReSPECT across the BNSSG and Gloucestershire CCGs, we have designed a confidence survey that will help organisations and NHS services across both CCGs establish knowledge on the ReSPECT process and provide links to suitable training resources. The West of England ReSPECT confidence survey can be found here.
There are also useful film resources available at the following links:
- BBC Horizon ‘We Need to Talk About Death’:
4-minute trailer
Full film - ‘ReSPECT Process – Person Centred Emergency Care Planning’ – NHS Forth Valley
Posted on October 10, 2019
Implementing ReSPECT as a healthcare professional
Training for staff who will need to recognise the ReSPECT form, act on recommendations and be initiating or carrying out conversations with patients and their families about treatment escalation, DNACPR, and the ReSPECT process.
