Action needed to ensure proper end-of-life care

A third of patients in Scottish hospitals are in their last year of life and 10 per cent die on their current admission.

We know many of these people miss out on the care and support they need when they become terminally ill, are approaching the end of life and when they die.

Marie Curie and the University of Glasgow have recently, with a range of experts, explored how palliative care in acute settings can be improved, what changes need to be made and how to better share good practice.

Our report, Past, present and future: Caring for those approaching the end of life in Scottish Hospitals, finds that despite many examples of good care, hospitals are still not identifying enough patients who could benefit from palliative care when seriously ill and approaching the end of life, so unfairly miss out on the care they need. We are calling on the Scottish Government, NHS boards and integration authorities to implement the 12 recommendations set out in this report covering public policy, communication, identifying palliative patients, IT, workforce, training and education, data and culture.

We would like to see this include a £15 million Change and Innovation Fund to test new models of integrated care involving acute settings.

The impact for patients who have missed out on palliative and end-of-life support in hospitals is distressing not only for those who are at the end of life, but also for their families.

We have seen these impacts further increase with Covid-19. There is no denying hospitals are the right place for some dying people to be and for many it is their preference.

We need definitive action to ensure people get the care they need when visiting and staying in hospital in their last years, months, weeks, days and hours of life.

Richard Meade, head of policy and public affairs Scotland, Marie Curie, and

Dr Marian Krawczyk, lecturer, School of Interdisciplinary Studies (End of Life

Studies), University of Glasgow.