Your emergency care plan (ReSPECT)
What is ReSPECT?
ReSPECT stands for Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment.
This involves conversations between patients and clinicians to create personalised emergency care plans.
It records preferences for care, including CPR, for individuals with complex needs or those nearing end-of-life.
It promotes respectful, shared decision-making across care settings.
Key Aspects of the ReSPECT Process
Personalised Care: It is not a legally binding form but a summary of recommendations documenting what matters most to the individual.
Emergency Planning: It ensures that if a patient cannot express their wishes, health professionals (such as ambulance crews) can make immediate, informed decisions based on the plan.
Inclusive Discussions: Conversations include the person, their families, and clinicians, covering goals of care and whether CPR is recommended.
Application: It is particularly relevant for individuals with complex health needs, frailty, or those nearing the end of life.
Accessibility: The document can be updated to reflect changing circumstances and preferences.
NHS Sussex
The ReSPECT process has been adopted across Sussex to ensure that a person’s clinical care wishes are known, so that in a future emergency where you may not have capacity or be able to express your choices they are already known in your ReSPECT plan.
On their website there are ReSPECT resources, such as forms, documents as well as translated ReSPECT resources.
Resuscitation Council
The ReSPECT process and form were developed iteratively over a period of two years. The project included public consultation, patient focus groups and usability testing, and was informed by best practice in the UK and internationally.
The resulting process and form were designed to:
- be acceptable to patients, those important to patients, health professionals, carers and other members of the public.
- be underpinned by a good decision-making process.
- promote good decision-making.
- promote dialogue between individuals and clinicians.
- be used across all care settings.
- be used for individuals of all ages.
- use evidence and experience from other successful initiatives.
- consider decisions about CPR within overall goals of care.
On their website you can find supporting files for Health Care Professionals, Patients and Carers, as well as publications and newsletter archives.
