HPAL: expert palliative care information within a ten-minute consultation – By Dr Ros Taylor MBE, Medical Director, Harlington Hospice, and clinical lead for HPAL. Most palliative care happens outside specialist settings. It happens in GP surgeries, in community pharmacies, in patients’ homes – often in the hands of people who may see only a handful of dying patients each year, and who have minutes, not hours, to find the right answer.
HPAL (https://hpal.medindex.co.uk) was built for exactly those moments.
A palliative care website co-designed by patients and clinicians has been extended widely across London bringing quick, reliable palliative care information to clinicians, patients, carers and families. Its model – trusted core content and services localised for each area – is designed to be tailored to any region in the UK, or indeed to other countries.It has been commissioned by the NHS from April 26.
As a hospice doctor, I have spent my career trying to bring palliative care knowledge to the places where dying actually happens, and that ambition is at the heart of this site. HPAL provides brief, expert information on all aspects of palliative and end of life care, structured so that it can be used within a ten-minute consultation or short visit.
A doctor or a nurse can type a symptom – breathlessness, dry mouth, an opioid conversion – and reach concise, practical guidance in seconds. One primary care doctor told us about a patient who had endured two weeks of painful hiccups despite several consultations; a quick HPAL search led to effective prescribing, and the symptom settled within two hours.
Not just for doctors and nurses
I’m aware as a doctor that family carers are in the front line 24/7. Half of the website is devoted to informal carers, with practical information on what to expect, how to care at home, how to plan for the future and how to help symptoms such as pain or breathlessness. One click at the top of the page toggles between clinician and carer content.
A translation toolbar improves accessibility for diverse populations, supporting the wider drive to improve health literacy.
This website matters because so much distress at the end of life comes from not knowing: not knowing what is normal, what help exists, or who to call. Giving patients and professionals the same trusted starting point helps us to focus on what really matters when time is short.
Why a localised service directory is key
For example, our service directory in West and North Central London includes the community pharmacies that stock end of life care medication – information that can save precious hours when a patient is deteriorating at home and a prescription needs dispensing quickly. It also includes a huge range of relevant palliative and community services.
Designed to spread
The whole point of HPAL’s design is that it can travel. The core clinical and patient-facing content is held centrally and kept up to date, while everything local (the directory of services and formulary) sits in its own layer.
That separation means a new version can be established without rebuilding the content from scratch. Any Integrated Care System in England can adopt HPAL with its own services and formulary – and the same model works internationally, with core content adapted to local drug availability, service structures and language.
If you are interested in exploring a version for your own area, in the UK or beyond, please get in touch via admin@medindex.co.uk.
—————–
Leave a Reply