The Specialised Clinical Frailty Network supports specialised healthcare teams to improve the way specialised care and treatment is tailored to the needs and preferences of individuals living with frailty.  The Network commenced in 2018, and has been working with specialised teams to explore how frailty assessment and management can best be integrated into specialised service pathways.  The Network is a clinically led quality improvement collaborative.

Frailty describes  a health condition that means individuals are less able to recover from accidents, physical illness or other stress events.  It should be treated as a long term condition through-out adult life.  The care of people living with frailty presents a growing and significant issue for today’s NHS, including specialised services.  In contrast to other areas of care, little has been done to examine how the care of people needing complex interventions can be improved by a better understanding of frailty.

The Network delivers a programme of support framed around frailty assessment, that will help inform a clinically appropriate and holistic response to meet patient needs.  Shared decision making is a key part of this response, ensuring that a patient-centred plan is agreed with patients and their carers, adopting a “what matters to you” philosophy.

The first wave of sites commenced during autumn 2018 and comprised of three cohorts of different specialised services: Renal Dialysis, Interventional Cardiology and Chemotherapy, with four to five trusts in each cohort. The second wave of sites started in February 2019, focused on Neurosurgery, Adult Critical Care and complex Spinal Surgery. A third wave of sites commenced in November 2019, focused on Cancer Surgery, Cardiac Surgery and Vascular Services, with the fourth wave looking at the same three services starting in October 2020.