Gold Standards Framework

Gold Standards Framework

The Gold Standard Framework was originally developed in 2000 by Dr Keri Thomas, a UK GP with a special interest in palliative care, as a grassroots initiative to improve primary palliation in dying patients.
It was first piloted in Yorkshire in 2001, followed by a national phased programme supported by the NHS, Macmillan and more recently the DH End of Life Care Programme. Integral to the GSK are internal and external evaluations—initially via questionnaires, now via an online After Death Analysis audit tool—and independent University based evaluations, which further developed the work. National dissemination was via a cascade plan with the Central Team supporting local facilitators, enabling implementation of the work, overseeing training and audit plus developing adaptations and resources. The GSF has expanded to meet the challenge of end of life care in the NHS End of Life Care Strategy (England) and in health and social care in the rest of the UK, which has sparked international pilots in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Belgium, Holland etc. The initiative is now based at the National GSF Centre in the West Midlands.