My understanding of the ePCS is that one the reasons it was introduced was to improve OOH experiences for palliative patients by giving them more direct access to clinical input. From the information on this site I gather that their calls are prioritized and also that they get through to a nurse directly. Is that still the case? And if so is that only the case if the ePCS is filled in rather than only an eKIS?

Thank you for getting in touch with SCIMP. I am a GP in Lothian and the Chair of the ECS Service Board, as well as being a member of SCIMP.

I’m afraid I cannot speak to the original reason for ePCS, but I got in touch with an NHS24 colleague, who also sits on the ECS Service Board, who informed that all KIS/ePCS information is available at any point after record creation and identification, shortly after a call to 111 is made. NHS24 do have particular palliative care processes, my colleague does not mention that any of them are specifically triggered by the presence or absence of an ePCS – rather by looking at all the information available. I suppose the purpose of ePCS as we see it is to provide a structured data area to contain specific palliative care details which can then be easily identified later on. I don’ t think there is any reason why if palliative information was only available in the KIS or special note areas,  the directions would not be followed by NHS24 – though it would not be best practice as I suspect it could be easier for a call handler or anyone down the line to miss it.