Optimising Medicines in Frailty & Care Homes: Palliative Care and Deprescribing in Focus

Our study days are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, who provide funding that allows us to offer all events completely free of charge. Sponsors have no involvement in agenda development, speaker selection, or clinical content – this is managed entirely by MORPh’s clinical team.

The “Optimising Medicines in Frailty & Care Homes: Palliative Care and Deprescribing in Focus”  Study Day is free to access for all registered healthcare professionals that have a MORPh Account.

Doors will open at 09:00 for welcome and introductions the study day will begin shortly after. Our expert speakers will be discussing the following topics:

Learning Objectives 

By the end of this session, delegates will be able to: 

• Recognise patients approaching the last year of life and identify triggers for palliative care review in primary care. 
• Conduct sensitive and effective difficult conversations, including advance care planning, ceilings of care, and family discussions. 
• Prescribe and review anticipatory medicines safely for common end-of-life symptoms. 
• Undertake structured polypharmacy reviews in primary care, including frailty-based and risk-based deprescribing.  
• Identify high-risk medicines, reduce medication burden, and improve patient-centred outcomes across long-term conditions. 
• Apply case-based learning to integrate communication skills, anticipatory prescribing, and medicines optimisation in practice. 

Palliative Care Foundations in Primary Care

• Identifying patients with palliative needs and recognising clinical deterioration 
• Prognostic uncertainty and triggers for advance care planning 
• Roles of primary care, community teams, and MDT working 
• Recognising symptom burden and unmet needs 
• The role of pharmacy professionals in palliative medication reviews 

Managing Difficult Conversations Workshop

• Discussing prognosis and uncertainty with patients and families 
• DNACPR, ReSPECT, and ceilings of treatment discussions 
• Managing conflict, emotional responses, and safeguarding concerns 
• Cultural sensitivity and shared decision-making 
• The pharmacist and technician role in supporting difficult discussions 
• Workshop: Communication scenarios and small-group role play with feedback 

Polypharmacy Reviews in PCNs: Foundations & Delivering Effective Structured Medication Reviews

• Defining appropriate vs problematic polypharmacy and impact on patient outcomes 
• Identifying high-risk patients: frailty, multimorbidity, care homes, housebound patients, and high-risk medicines 
• Risk stratification and prioritisation aligned with PCN Structured Medication Review expectations 
• What constitutes a high-quality SMR (clinical assessment, patient priorities, deprescribing opportunities) 
• Addressing adherence, treatment burden, and health literacy 
• Shared decision-making skills mapped to ARRS pharmacist and technician competencies 
• Documentation, safety-netting, and demonstrating impact of SMRs within PCN workflow

Deprescribing & High-Risk Medicines Management in PCNs (Including Care Home Polypharmacy)

• Applying deprescribing frameworks in frailty, multimorbidity, and limited life expectancy 
• Reviewing preventive medicines and time-to-benefit in older adults 
• Recognising and managing prescribing cascades 
• Managing high-risk medicines in care homes and frail populations (anticoagulants, opioids, anticholinergics, insulin, sedatives) 
• Practical care home polypharmacy review tips and MDT collaboration 
• Monitoring, safety netting, and communicating medication changes with patients, carers, and care staff 
• Case-based discussion: frail community patient vs care home resident medication review